Music Mixes
Jan. 9th, 2004 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feldmanCDs went out yesterday for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fbf (I killed two pens writing your address, which is why it looks like I mailed it from a locked ward), cretkid, crankygrrl, buggs and elishavah, sans the Cracker Jack surprise, but those will follow afterward. I mean, I've got the addresses, everything doesn't have to be all in the same envelope (<----took me how many days to figure that out? *shakes head*). thassalia, yours is going out today. kixxa and apathy, yours will go out on Monday, and they'll have the Cracker Jack surprise.
So, sincesaava asked about the track lists of the mixes, I'm going to adapt her format and yammer a bit about why I chose those songs.
Spoilers throughout all four seasons, so be warned. Even though the second set of mixes is kind of a personal soundtrack to my novel-sized WIP "Little Acorns", I've kept all of the blurbs free of fic-spoilers, but they are pretty season four specific.
In any mix, I don't preclude more than one song from a single artist or band, but double-selections need to show a trajectory for me, or a contrast, or at the very least have a definitely different feel. Lyrics are the most important factor for me but sound is a close second, which is why you'll find a lot of covers (some of them a tad bizarre, I'll admit).
SONGS OF LOVE & DESTRUCTION: MOYAMIX
Space Pirates - Alice Cooper
out of the blue came a kill-crazy crew
whose motto was 'stomp on the weak!'
with bones in their hair, they were hungry as bears
and their leader was king of the freaks
The infamous are always given credit for the eyeball popping.
I Am a Passenger - Iggy Pop
I am a passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
The bopping beat, Iggy's strange voice, and the quiet awesome pleasure of riding out under the starlight.
The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash
into the mercy seat I climb
my head is shaved,my head is wired
and like a moth that tries to enter the bright eye
I go shuffling out of life
just to hide in death a while
and anyway, I never lied
D'Argo, chained to a wall and brooding for cycles. This is a cover of a Nick Cave song, and the hypnotizing sermonizing delivery of Johnny Cash leads you down a hallway where a piano crescendo surges through you like a thunderstorm.
This Wasn't Supposed to Happen - The Sugarcubes
this wasn't supposed to happen
I was happy by myself
accidentally, you seduced me
I'm in love, again
Aeryn, realizing with more terror than ecstacy that she's fallen hard. I even like the part where the man raps in a thick Icelandic accent; it has a certain panicked hilarity that works for me.
Across the Universe - Fiona Apple
Jai guru deva om
nothing's gonna change my world
nothing's gonna change my world
I like how there's a double meaning to the chorus of "nothing's gonna change my world", resistance to change, but also the changing power of freeing your mind of all thought. Both the stubborn and the transcendent meaning apply to Zhaan, which is a bonus since her flaws are what I like about her. Cover of a Beatles song.
Fuck and Run - Liz Phair
Fuck and run
fuck and run
even when I was seventeen
fuck and run
fuck and run
even when I was twelve
Chiana, using every resource she has to survive and thrive, but something inside her still believes in family (even if it doesn't believe she'll ever find one).
No Daddy No - Pretty & Twisted
like the devil on my shoulder
with his tongue in my ear
hissing like a snake
and I don't wanna hear
sinking in quicksand
minute by minute
your hell, baby
I ain't burning in it
The guitar riffs, the pounding beat, and the refusal to be taken advantage of--oh yeah, this song is Chiana when she realized she had enough breathing room between herself and starvation to afford higher standards in her friends and sexual partners.
The Door - Keb'Mo'
I was down for so long
everything I did was wrong
I found fault with everyone but me
I was hurt and alone
could not find my way home
broke down and haunted, too tired to moan
Rygel was hard to peg a song to, but something about the casual wisdom of this song reminds me of him when he's humble and daunted. It doesn't happen much, I know, but those moments of Rygel's self-doubt stick with me.
Up For It - Rollins Band
I take time
thinking about the moves I'm going to have to make
I take time
thinking about the rules I'm going to have to break
This song not only speaks to the calculated strategy of Scorpius's thinking, but also the will and the style inherent in being Scorpius.
Blackeyed Blonde - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Pumpin' the blood through the heart of New Orleans
She's the mystic heat of the Bourbon street dream
She's just made out of flesh and bones
But let me tell you little boy
You better leave her alone
Leroy Brown thought he was bad too
'till she left him floatin' in the old bayou
She's the kind of girl
She's built like a bomb
She's the blackeyed blackeyed
Blackeyed blonde, Get down !
That blackeyed beauty with the golden crotch
French electric sex a cock shocking swamp fox
Heaten queen of sleeze she's hot to box
But let me tell you little boy
She'll clean your clock
A slick and sly spy
Stuck in the muck of the moat
Blew his mind to find a diamond in the boat
Double-o-dooms day for Mr. James Bond
She's the blackeyed blackeyed
Blackeyed blonde, Get down!
Yeah, it's the third Chiana song, but I couldn't pass it up. It's early punk-funk Peppers: rude, energetic, a bit hard to understand (hence the full lyrics); and even the barking part reminds me of Chi.
The Heart You Break May Be Your Own - Patsy Cline
you think you're smart
you broke my heart
left me to cry alone
but you'll return
one day you'll learn
the heart you break may be your own
Pure "Suns and Lovers" here, and I can picture D'Argo drinking and listening to Patsy Cline until he bawls himself to sleep.
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
I can't stand it
I know you planned it
I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I put on the track listing "for bases, installations and cancellations" and that still works for me.
Mister Love - Toadies
you gonna make me happy
you gonna make me smile
are you gonna save me
tell me, Mr. Love
The vocal style alone reminds me of manic Stark, not to mention the desperate thirst to be saved by something outside of himself.
So Broken - Bjork
darling, I'm trying to land this aeroplane of ours...
gracefully,
but my heart is so broken
The thing I love about Bjork is how she has no restraints in the way she uses her voice, and it's such a solid voice that it goes wherever she takes it--she growls and howls with grief in this song, backed by sad Spanish guitars. In the line I quoted, her voice is both the plunging plane and the desperate pilot. This may or may not be a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song (Google, why hast though failed me?).
Blackbird - Sarah MacLachlan
You were always awaiting
for this moment to arise
Zhaan's sacrifice; because I can buy that it wasn't a spur of the moment decision, but the seizing of an opportunity she'd been desperate to find for a long time, a means to make amends to the universe no matter what the cost. Like the first Zhaan selection, it's a cover of a Beatles song and Sarah does a spare and lovely job that may possibly wring you like a sponge.
On The Day - Rollins Band
you got that look in your eye
but do you have what it takes
you gotta ask yourself,
can you break me?
If nothing else, you have to give Bialar Crais credit for one thing; that man had a robust and sturdy set of brass balls.
We Will Rock You - Snoop Dogg
buddy you're a young man, a hard man
shouting in the streets
gonna take on the world someday
Yes, Snoop Dogg covered a Queen song, turning the stirring stadium anthem into something low-key and funky. There's a narrowed-eyes feel to it; could be sleepiness, could be sociopathic menace, definitely Talyn.
Come and Get Your Love - Redbone
Hail! What's the matter if you feel right
oh, you feel right, baby?
Hail! Oh yeah,
get it from the main vine, alright
The spangly guitars and "hail, baby, well-met" gusto define D'Argo on the prowl. I've loved this song since I was little.
Souvenir - Pretty & Twisted
can I have a souvenir
so I remember I was here
I don't want to see it fade
away
Jool staying behind on Arnessk, maybe starting to wistfully remember her stay on Moya as a dream, and wondering if they remember her at all.
Someone to Watch Over Me - Ella Fitzgerald
I'd like to add his initial to my monogram
tell me,
where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
For the shameless Scorpius groupie, Sikozu Shanu. I did get a grin when I chose it, but the lyrics are also dead on.
There He Goes - Patsy Cline
she won his heart
I lost him some way
there he goes
he's walking away
I couldn't resist putting a song for Miklo Braca in the mix, and Patsy does love triangles and homewrecking songs like no one else.
Down Under - Pennywise
lying in a den in Bombay
with a slack jaw and not much to say
I said to the man "are you trying to tempt me?
Because I come from the land of plenty."
This song is for the crew who made this story so tangible and compelling, all the people we only get to enjoy the brilliant handiwork of, but never see or perhaps think much about. Cover of a Men At Work song.
SONGS OF LOVE & DESTRUCTION: JOHNNYMIX
Loser - Beck
Soy un perdidor
I'm a loser, baby,
so why don't you kill me?
"Forces of evil and a Bozo nightmare" is only one of the lyrics that make this whole song a kind of collage of FS associations and images for me.
I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen
If you want a partner take my hand or
if you want to strike me down in anger
here I stand
I'm your man
Yes it's a blatant love song, but it's also Leonard Cohen--love is never simple or saccharine when Mr. Cohen is rumbling deeply about it into your ear.
Girl U Want - Soundgarden
she swings from somewhere you can't see
she sits in the top of the greenest tree
she sends out an aroma of undefined love
it drifts on down in a mist from above
This is a cover of a song by Devo, the New Wave guys with the flowerpot hats and the whips, and this version brings out the compelling sensuality of the lyrics.
Pure Morning - Placebo
A friend in need's a friend indeed
a friend who'll tease is better
our thoughts compressed, which makes us blessed
and makes for stormy weather
Perhaps it's not the most relevant pick, I think if I redid this mix I might see if something else didn't fit better, but I still enjoy this song quite a bit.
My Hero, Zero - The Lemonheads
My hero, Zero
such a funny little hero
but 'til you came along
we counted on our fingers and toes
For those of you who didn't watch Saturday morning cartoons in the US in the 70's/80's, Schoolhouse Rock was a series of commercial-length educational animations with catchy songs covering such diverse topics as grammar, government, history, and in this case, mathematics. The Lemonheads have covered this jingle about heroism and the utility of the concept of zero.
Banditos - The Refreshments
give your ID card to the border guard
now your alias says your Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
of the United Federation of Planets
--cause he won't speak English anyway
Not a surprising pick perhaps, but if I had the equipment resources and time I'd make a Liars, Guns & Money vid for this one. I'd make a lot of banal and awful vids, but this would be one of the first.
An American - D.W. Harris
Jesus loves you
so does your Uncle Sam
you're an American
The gravelly sarcasm of this song makes me smile, and in the context of this mix I picture Jesus as AlienJack and Uncle Sam as Scorpius.
I'm Afraid of Americans - David Bowie & Nine Inch Nails
Johnny wants a brain
Johnny wants to suck on a coke
Johnny wants a woman
Johnny wants to think of a joke
I love the energy and the threat of this song, right down to the unanswered phone ringing in the distance at the end. The lyrics are clean and viscious and David Bowie wrote them, which probably means I should buy more Bowie.
The Becoming - Nine Inch Nails
the me that you know's now made up of wires
and even when I'm right with you
I'm so far away
An excellent version of a great song, about a man taken over by a machine. Even the percussion is involved in this struggle, oscillating between straight beats and syncopation.
Johnny Feelgood - Liz Phair
I never realized I was so dirty and dry
'til he knocked me down
started dragging me around
in the back of his convertible car--
let me tell you I liked it
I liked it more and more
Quite simply, the domestication of Harvey.
I'm Finding It Harder - The White Stripes
I'm finding it harder
to be a gentleman every day
all the manners that I've been taught
have slowly died away
but if I held the door open for you
it wouldn't make your day
The UTs have made John feral, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like the way the song alternately spanks you hard and then croons in your ear. So to speak.
Time of the Preacher - Johnny Cash
it was the time of the preacher when the story began
of the choice of a lady, and the love of a man
how he loved her so dearly he went out of his mind
and she left him for someone that she left behind
Another song I'd vid, but only if I could somehow make the clips sepia-toned. I should stick with icons--I want to futz with too many variables in the source material.
Hit Me Baby (One More Time) - Weezer
My loneliness is killing me
and I must confess
I still believe
if you're not with me I lose my mind
give me a sign
hit me baby, one more time
Acoustic and pained and self-mocking yet somehow touching all the same. Originally sung by Brittany Spears.
Hope Was Never Our Friend - Sofia Ramona
and the things that they say
will wash our dreams away
because hope was never our friend
but that was yesterday
tomorrow comes and washes it away
Sofia Ramona was a local band out of Chicago that has apparently broken up and never recorded an actual album that I can find. This was part of the same indie compilation as D.W. Harris's "An American".
Happiness Is a Warm Gun - U2
she's not a girl who misses much
do do do do, oh yeah
Can't have a John disc without a song for Winona. This is a Beatles song, and this cover is metallic and cold sexy, like an outfit made from white leather, silver lame and snowy rabbit fur.
You Are My Sunshine - John Prine, Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan
The other night, dear
As I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
This is a song I learned bits of as a child, and it's also been used to sell bright yellow mustard--but the lyrics and the plaintive harmony are resignedly sad and I couldn't resist the sunshine even though it's somewhat cliche.
Hide Your Love Away/New Amsterdam - Elvis Costello
Here I stand, head in hand
turn my face to the wall
if she's gone I can't go on
feeling two feet small
This medley is seamless, the delivery sardonic and yet honest: here's my broken heart, here's how I compensate for it, you can do the same. Hide You Love Away was written by the Beatles, New Amsterdam by Elvis Costello.
The Ship Song - Nick Cave
Come sail your ships around me
and burn your bridges down
we make a little history, baby
every time you come around
Even a dangerous wrecking kind of love needs a ballad.
You Only Live Twice - Bjork
you only live twice,
or so it seems
one life for yourself
and one for your dreams
Yes, the song from the James Bond movie, with Bjork's soft haunting voice and symphonic strings. You've got to have the chops to cover the great Shirley Bassey, and Bjork has them.
fbf (I killed two pens writing your address, which is why it looks like I mailed it from a locked ward), cretkid, crankygrrl, buggs and elishavah, sans the Cracker Jack surprise, but those will follow afterward. I mean, I've got the addresses, everything doesn't have to be all in the same envelope (<----took me how many days to figure that out? *shakes head*). thassalia, yours is going out today. kixxa and apathy, yours will go out on Monday, and they'll have the Cracker Jack surprise.So, since
saava asked about the track lists of the mixes, I'm going to adapt her format and yammer a bit about why I chose those songs.Spoilers throughout all four seasons, so be warned. Even though the second set of mixes is kind of a personal soundtrack to my novel-sized WIP "Little Acorns", I've kept all of the blurbs free of fic-spoilers, but they are pretty season four specific.
In any mix, I don't preclude more than one song from a single artist or band, but double-selections need to show a trajectory for me, or a contrast, or at the very least have a definitely different feel. Lyrics are the most important factor for me but sound is a close second, which is why you'll find a lot of covers (some of them a tad bizarre, I'll admit).
SONGS OF LOVE & DESTRUCTION: MOYAMIX
Space Pirates - Alice Cooper
out of the blue came a kill-crazy crew
whose motto was 'stomp on the weak!'
with bones in their hair, they were hungry as bears
and their leader was king of the freaks
The infamous are always given credit for the eyeball popping.
I Am a Passenger - Iggy Pop
I am a passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
The bopping beat, Iggy's strange voice, and the quiet awesome pleasure of riding out under the starlight.
The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash
into the mercy seat I climb
my head is shaved,my head is wired
and like a moth that tries to enter the bright eye
I go shuffling out of life
just to hide in death a while
and anyway, I never lied
D'Argo, chained to a wall and brooding for cycles. This is a cover of a Nick Cave song, and the hypnotizing sermonizing delivery of Johnny Cash leads you down a hallway where a piano crescendo surges through you like a thunderstorm.
This Wasn't Supposed to Happen - The Sugarcubes
this wasn't supposed to happen
I was happy by myself
accidentally, you seduced me
I'm in love, again
Aeryn, realizing with more terror than ecstacy that she's fallen hard. I even like the part where the man raps in a thick Icelandic accent; it has a certain panicked hilarity that works for me.
Across the Universe - Fiona Apple
Jai guru deva om
nothing's gonna change my world
nothing's gonna change my world
I like how there's a double meaning to the chorus of "nothing's gonna change my world", resistance to change, but also the changing power of freeing your mind of all thought. Both the stubborn and the transcendent meaning apply to Zhaan, which is a bonus since her flaws are what I like about her. Cover of a Beatles song.
Fuck and Run - Liz Phair
Fuck and run
fuck and run
even when I was seventeen
fuck and run
fuck and run
even when I was twelve
Chiana, using every resource she has to survive and thrive, but something inside her still believes in family (even if it doesn't believe she'll ever find one).
No Daddy No - Pretty & Twisted
like the devil on my shoulder
with his tongue in my ear
hissing like a snake
and I don't wanna hear
sinking in quicksand
minute by minute
your hell, baby
I ain't burning in it
The guitar riffs, the pounding beat, and the refusal to be taken advantage of--oh yeah, this song is Chiana when she realized she had enough breathing room between herself and starvation to afford higher standards in her friends and sexual partners.
The Door - Keb'Mo'
I was down for so long
everything I did was wrong
I found fault with everyone but me
I was hurt and alone
could not find my way home
broke down and haunted, too tired to moan
Rygel was hard to peg a song to, but something about the casual wisdom of this song reminds me of him when he's humble and daunted. It doesn't happen much, I know, but those moments of Rygel's self-doubt stick with me.
Up For It - Rollins Band
I take time
thinking about the moves I'm going to have to make
I take time
thinking about the rules I'm going to have to break
This song not only speaks to the calculated strategy of Scorpius's thinking, but also the will and the style inherent in being Scorpius.
Blackeyed Blonde - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Pumpin' the blood through the heart of New Orleans
She's the mystic heat of the Bourbon street dream
She's just made out of flesh and bones
But let me tell you little boy
You better leave her alone
Leroy Brown thought he was bad too
'till she left him floatin' in the old bayou
She's the kind of girl
She's built like a bomb
She's the blackeyed blackeyed
Blackeyed blonde, Get down !
That blackeyed beauty with the golden crotch
French electric sex a cock shocking swamp fox
Heaten queen of sleeze she's hot to box
But let me tell you little boy
She'll clean your clock
A slick and sly spy
Stuck in the muck of the moat
Blew his mind to find a diamond in the boat
Double-o-dooms day for Mr. James Bond
She's the blackeyed blackeyed
Blackeyed blonde, Get down!
Yeah, it's the third Chiana song, but I couldn't pass it up. It's early punk-funk Peppers: rude, energetic, a bit hard to understand (hence the full lyrics); and even the barking part reminds me of Chi.
The Heart You Break May Be Your Own - Patsy Cline
you think you're smart
you broke my heart
left me to cry alone
but you'll return
one day you'll learn
the heart you break may be your own
Pure "Suns and Lovers" here, and I can picture D'Argo drinking and listening to Patsy Cline until he bawls himself to sleep.
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
I can't stand it
I know you planned it
I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I put on the track listing "for bases, installations and cancellations" and that still works for me.
Mister Love - Toadies
you gonna make me happy
you gonna make me smile
are you gonna save me
tell me, Mr. Love
The vocal style alone reminds me of manic Stark, not to mention the desperate thirst to be saved by something outside of himself.
So Broken - Bjork
darling, I'm trying to land this aeroplane of ours...
gracefully,
but my heart is so broken
The thing I love about Bjork is how she has no restraints in the way she uses her voice, and it's such a solid voice that it goes wherever she takes it--she growls and howls with grief in this song, backed by sad Spanish guitars. In the line I quoted, her voice is both the plunging plane and the desperate pilot. This may or may not be a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song (Google, why hast though failed me?).
Blackbird - Sarah MacLachlan
You were always awaiting
for this moment to arise
Zhaan's sacrifice; because I can buy that it wasn't a spur of the moment decision, but the seizing of an opportunity she'd been desperate to find for a long time, a means to make amends to the universe no matter what the cost. Like the first Zhaan selection, it's a cover of a Beatles song and Sarah does a spare and lovely job that may possibly wring you like a sponge.
On The Day - Rollins Band
you got that look in your eye
but do you have what it takes
you gotta ask yourself,
can you break me?
If nothing else, you have to give Bialar Crais credit for one thing; that man had a robust and sturdy set of brass balls.
We Will Rock You - Snoop Dogg
buddy you're a young man, a hard man
shouting in the streets
gonna take on the world someday
Yes, Snoop Dogg covered a Queen song, turning the stirring stadium anthem into something low-key and funky. There's a narrowed-eyes feel to it; could be sleepiness, could be sociopathic menace, definitely Talyn.
Come and Get Your Love - Redbone
Hail! What's the matter if you feel right
oh, you feel right, baby?
Hail! Oh yeah,
get it from the main vine, alright
The spangly guitars and "hail, baby, well-met" gusto define D'Argo on the prowl. I've loved this song since I was little.
Souvenir - Pretty & Twisted
can I have a souvenir
so I remember I was here
I don't want to see it fade
away
Jool staying behind on Arnessk, maybe starting to wistfully remember her stay on Moya as a dream, and wondering if they remember her at all.
Someone to Watch Over Me - Ella Fitzgerald
I'd like to add his initial to my monogram
tell me,
where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
For the shameless Scorpius groupie, Sikozu Shanu. I did get a grin when I chose it, but the lyrics are also dead on.
There He Goes - Patsy Cline
she won his heart
I lost him some way
there he goes
he's walking away
I couldn't resist putting a song for Miklo Braca in the mix, and Patsy does love triangles and homewrecking songs like no one else.
Down Under - Pennywise
lying in a den in Bombay
with a slack jaw and not much to say
I said to the man "are you trying to tempt me?
Because I come from the land of plenty."
This song is for the crew who made this story so tangible and compelling, all the people we only get to enjoy the brilliant handiwork of, but never see or perhaps think much about. Cover of a Men At Work song.
SONGS OF LOVE & DESTRUCTION: JOHNNYMIX
Loser - Beck
Soy un perdidor
I'm a loser, baby,
so why don't you kill me?
"Forces of evil and a Bozo nightmare" is only one of the lyrics that make this whole song a kind of collage of FS associations and images for me.
I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen
If you want a partner take my hand or
if you want to strike me down in anger
here I stand
I'm your man
Yes it's a blatant love song, but it's also Leonard Cohen--love is never simple or saccharine when Mr. Cohen is rumbling deeply about it into your ear.
Girl U Want - Soundgarden
she swings from somewhere you can't see
she sits in the top of the greenest tree
she sends out an aroma of undefined love
it drifts on down in a mist from above
This is a cover of a song by Devo, the New Wave guys with the flowerpot hats and the whips, and this version brings out the compelling sensuality of the lyrics.
Pure Morning - Placebo
A friend in need's a friend indeed
a friend who'll tease is better
our thoughts compressed, which makes us blessed
and makes for stormy weather
Perhaps it's not the most relevant pick, I think if I redid this mix I might see if something else didn't fit better, but I still enjoy this song quite a bit.
My Hero, Zero - The Lemonheads
My hero, Zero
such a funny little hero
but 'til you came along
we counted on our fingers and toes
For those of you who didn't watch Saturday morning cartoons in the US in the 70's/80's, Schoolhouse Rock was a series of commercial-length educational animations with catchy songs covering such diverse topics as grammar, government, history, and in this case, mathematics. The Lemonheads have covered this jingle about heroism and the utility of the concept of zero.
Banditos - The Refreshments
give your ID card to the border guard
now your alias says your Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
of the United Federation of Planets
--cause he won't speak English anyway
Not a surprising pick perhaps, but if I had the equipment resources and time I'd make a Liars, Guns & Money vid for this one. I'd make a lot of banal and awful vids, but this would be one of the first.
An American - D.W. Harris
Jesus loves you
so does your Uncle Sam
you're an American
The gravelly sarcasm of this song makes me smile, and in the context of this mix I picture Jesus as AlienJack and Uncle Sam as Scorpius.
I'm Afraid of Americans - David Bowie & Nine Inch Nails
Johnny wants a brain
Johnny wants to suck on a coke
Johnny wants a woman
Johnny wants to think of a joke
I love the energy and the threat of this song, right down to the unanswered phone ringing in the distance at the end. The lyrics are clean and viscious and David Bowie wrote them, which probably means I should buy more Bowie.
The Becoming - Nine Inch Nails
the me that you know's now made up of wires
and even when I'm right with you
I'm so far away
An excellent version of a great song, about a man taken over by a machine. Even the percussion is involved in this struggle, oscillating between straight beats and syncopation.
Johnny Feelgood - Liz Phair
I never realized I was so dirty and dry
'til he knocked me down
started dragging me around
in the back of his convertible car--
let me tell you I liked it
I liked it more and more
Quite simply, the domestication of Harvey.
I'm Finding It Harder - The White Stripes
I'm finding it harder
to be a gentleman every day
all the manners that I've been taught
have slowly died away
but if I held the door open for you
it wouldn't make your day
The UTs have made John feral, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like the way the song alternately spanks you hard and then croons in your ear. So to speak.
Time of the Preacher - Johnny Cash
it was the time of the preacher when the story began
of the choice of a lady, and the love of a man
how he loved her so dearly he went out of his mind
and she left him for someone that she left behind
Another song I'd vid, but only if I could somehow make the clips sepia-toned. I should stick with icons--I want to futz with too many variables in the source material.
Hit Me Baby (One More Time) - Weezer
My loneliness is killing me
and I must confess
I still believe
if you're not with me I lose my mind
give me a sign
hit me baby, one more time
Acoustic and pained and self-mocking yet somehow touching all the same. Originally sung by Brittany Spears.
Hope Was Never Our Friend - Sofia Ramona
and the things that they say
will wash our dreams away
because hope was never our friend
but that was yesterday
tomorrow comes and washes it away
Sofia Ramona was a local band out of Chicago that has apparently broken up and never recorded an actual album that I can find. This was part of the same indie compilation as D.W. Harris's "An American".
Happiness Is a Warm Gun - U2
she's not a girl who misses much
do do do do, oh yeah
Can't have a John disc without a song for Winona. This is a Beatles song, and this cover is metallic and cold sexy, like an outfit made from white leather, silver lame and snowy rabbit fur.
You Are My Sunshine - John Prine, Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan
The other night, dear
As I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
This is a song I learned bits of as a child, and it's also been used to sell bright yellow mustard--but the lyrics and the plaintive harmony are resignedly sad and I couldn't resist the sunshine even though it's somewhat cliche.
Hide Your Love Away/New Amsterdam - Elvis Costello
Here I stand, head in hand
turn my face to the wall
if she's gone I can't go on
feeling two feet small
This medley is seamless, the delivery sardonic and yet honest: here's my broken heart, here's how I compensate for it, you can do the same. Hide You Love Away was written by the Beatles, New Amsterdam by Elvis Costello.
The Ship Song - Nick Cave
Come sail your ships around me
and burn your bridges down
we make a little history, baby
every time you come around
Even a dangerous wrecking kind of love needs a ballad.
You Only Live Twice - Bjork
you only live twice,
or so it seems
one life for yourself
and one for your dreams
Yes, the song from the James Bond movie, with Bjork's soft haunting voice and symphonic strings. You've got to have the chops to cover the great Shirley Bassey, and Bjork has them.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 01:26 pm (UTC)I spent far too much time at 19 listening to Liz Phair, and I don't regret a second of it, and Divorce Song still kills me.
Leonard Cohen is the perfect singer of love songs for Farscape. And you should so own more Bowie. And that song is perfect, utterly perfect.
And then Nick Cave and you make my year.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 03:20 pm (UTC)Impossible ; )
Leonard Cohen is the perfect singer of love songs for Farscape.
I totally agree to that one. I think "The Future" would also make a kick-ass Farscape vid.
And you should so own more Bowie.
Got any suggestions for where I should start?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:27 am (UTC)The most recent greatest hits (although that's not exactly what it was called), has some fabulous stuff on it but my personal favorite is the two disk "Bowie at the Beeb" set which had recordings done at the BBC and spanned about 20 years. It came with a recent concert recording as well that had some great versions of newer songs!!
However, if all else fails, just buy Changes:)