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Music Meme, Day 30

A song that you want to share:

Now we come to the end of this meme - I find myself a little sad that this exercise is over, but all things come to an end. I've shared 29 days' worth of music with all of you and, in the process, I've had a chance to share music that was new to me as well. It also offered me the chance to re-listen to music I'd already discovered and liked or loved. It was a true joy to do this.

Some songs were beautiful or memorable all on their own. Others, in this age of the art of the music video ... well, their beauty or impact was enhanced by the imagery that framed them. No matter which, I will undoubtedly return again and again to the music I've posted, thanks to this meme.

Over the last few days, I've wondered what song I could present that was, perhaps, one that unexpectedly affected me, in fact left me enraptured. And a couple of days ago, the choice became easy.

If you've heard of Tuvan throat singing, you may also know some modern musicians in Siberia, Mongolia and other far eastern regions of what was once the USSR. One of these is The HU, described by Wikipedia as a folk metal band from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I find that they beautifully meld the traditions of their forebears with the music they make themselves. Here's an explanation of throat singing by folks who practice it.

The singer featured in this song is LP, whose voice provides a glorious kind of descant in this song and, in my not so humble opinion, is exactly the right person to work with The HU. Here's a link to a song LP wrote and performed, and this version of it left me breathless.

Putting all these musicians together, in a music video that features gorgeous scenes of this world entranced me when I first heard it. You may be affected by it the same way. So here is the HU singing Mother Nature, featuring LP

Thanks to all of you who followed me on this particular aural journey. I had a wonderful time, and I hope you did too (at least occasionally, if nothing else.)

Here's a link to my last music meme post, so you can travel back in time, should you desire to hear or rehear the music I posted.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Bang Chan "Railway"

Music Meme, Day 29

A song that you downloaded:

That would be damn near every bit of music that I've lately enjoyed, which amuses me.

I mean, I still have a large number of CDs out in the living room, music that I used to play all the time. And of course, prior to CDs, I used to play LPs all the time. Musical evolution, or at least musical tech evolution. I'm still not a Spotify type of person, which appears to be the way things roll these days. I'm old enough that I want to actually own the music I play. So even though I may own it in a way that the RIAA doesn't approve of, I still own it.

Downloading: threat or menace? Discuss.

But I'm still enjoying this meme (good lord, I'm almost done with it. Whatever shall I do with myself once Day 30 is done and dusted?) and I've completed a few downloads from YouTube lately, so I can at least show you one or more of my most recent musical acquisitions.

Let's try this one. "NASA" by Ateez came out not all that far before Artemis II took off. As a NASA fan, I loved the performance video, and once Artemis II blasted off, I kept going back to the video and grinning. It doesn't hurt that Seonghwa, the group member who is the main singer in the MV is my bias wrecker. (That's simply saying that he's my second favorite in the group. He's really sweet and unsure of himself, unless he's got his makeup on and he's onstage ... but you didn't need to know that, did you?)

Without further ado, here's Ateez, doing "NASA"

Watch on YouTube

And here's my previous meme day, which has links to all my answers. Because of course you'd be interested in those.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Ateez "Dancing Like Butterfly Wings"

Music Meme, Day 28

A song that you used to hate but love today

I think the very first song that blasted into my mind when I read this came from Led Zeppelin. When I was a teenager, and for years thereafter, I disliked the band. In large part that was because I didn't like Robert Plant's voice. I thought it was whiny.

In the decades since. I learned to really enjoy Plant's voice. His solo work stuck with me first and I thought, "Well, I may not like how he sang in Led Zep, but I do like his voice now."

And then something odd happened; I started looking back at Led Zeppelin's earliest stuff and listening to it, and I realized that Plant wasn't whining. He was wailing. And that wail worked beautifully for the work the band was presenting at the time.

And once I got over disliking Plant's voice during his Led Zeppelin days, I was free to appreciate the other members of the band. Jimmy Page was obviously in a class by himself when it came to the guitar; John Bonham may have played ever so slightly behind the beat, making his drums sound like brontosaurus lumberings, but it worked. And John Paul Jones knew how to work with Bonham.

Today I can honestly say that the first song I ever disliked performed by Led Zeppelin is now a song I think truly rocks. As in, when I hear it, my head starts to bang. Not healthy, perhaps, but understandable, I think at least some of you might agree.

Here it is.

Watch on YouTube

I hasten to add that Chicago bluesman Willie Dixon successfully sued the band over its use of his song, "You Need Love" in their hit. The suit was settled out of court and Dixon's name was subsequently listed as a co-writer of the Led Zeppelin song. Here's his original:

Watch on YouTube

And finally, here's a link to my previous meme posts. Just follow the bouncing links.

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love"

Music Meme, Day 27

A song that describes how you feel right now

Another tricky one, given that I can never be sure what I feel at any given moment. But I'll give it a try. Here's the song that had me dancing all day, and I think that's as good a way to describe how I have felt most of today.

There are actually two versions of this; one of them being filmed in L.A. (or at least I think that's where it was filmed) and the other one being very Korean. I think I like both of them for different reasons, so here you go.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

And here is a link to yesterday's post which, in turn, can connect to some of my earlier posts.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: BTS "ON"

Music Meme, Day 26

A song that helps you fall asleep at night:

I've been away from my journal, and the music meme for a while, and part of that was because I was initially stymied by this. I don't use music to help me go to sleep, although there are times I think about how nice it would be to fall asleep to the sounds of one of my favorite ambient stations. I can't do that, not without keeping Bob awake, or wearing my earbuds until they're completely drained.

But back when Andy was quite young, Bob had a job as a doorman down in one of the ritzier condominium buildings in Chicago's Near North neighborhood; not quite the Gold Coast, but as close as makes no difference. He had a night shift, which meant that I went to sleep alone, which was lonely. After I got Andy to bed, and once I was tired, I would put the Discman that Bob got for me, and I'd put the second CD of Kitaro's* two CD album "Silk Road" on. I'd put the headphones on, and I would listen to the album until my eyes were just about ready to close. I would reluctantly take off the headphones, and fall asleep.

I particularly liked two of the pieces: "Eternal Spring" and "Silver Moon." I'm sharing both of them with you now.

Watch on YouTube

Before I forget, here's a link that will help you catch up with my earlier meme posts, should you be interested.

Watch on YouTube

*I discovered Kitaro through an NPR radio show that our local public radio station played either really late at night, or far too early in the morning. At the time, Bob and I were both young and arrogant about the music we liked, and we made fun of a lot of the ambient pieces this show played, but when the host played some pieces from the Silk Road album, I really liked it, and Bob got me the CDs for Christmas or my birthday. He also later got me some more of Kitaro's work. I haven't listened to Kitaro in a while, but in hunting these pieces down I think I may have rekindled my interest in him.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: BTS "Filter"

Music Meme, Day 25

A song in a different language:

Oh, come on! Damn near every song I love lately is in a different language!

Takes deep breaths to calm down

I will take this as a challenge, however. Let's try to find something that isn't in Korean or Korean and English. I don't know if I can -

Oh. OK. I found one; I remembered it. And it's one I love.

"Waters of March" by Antonio Carlos Jobim (also known, although I didn't know this until today, as Tom Jobim) is a bossa nova favorite of mine, partly because of the simple yet sophisticated music and the very striking English words - a litany of good and bad things that come together in the end to be about "the joy in your heart" after all those good and sometimes very bad things.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Antonio Carlos Jobim "The Waters of March"

Music Meme, Day 24

A song that gets stuck in your head:

This one is ever-changing for me, as I imagine it is for other people. A song that you wake up with in your head one day, one that lilts or churns or waltzes through your head throughout that day may give way the next morning to something completely different, but equally mesmerizing. As someone who wakes up and goes to sleep with music, I think that's a wonderful thing.

There are dangers. If you're unlucky enough to get some song or other piece of music that you can't stand it could drive you spare. Bob told me once that he had that happen to him when he was much younger. He wasn't able to get it out of his head for days. I was about to say that I wouldn't wish that on an enemy, but actually, that would be an exquisitely nasty thing for a nasty enough enemy.

But in general, if you're like me, the songs that get stuck in your head are pieces where the music, or the words, or some combination of both are positive things.

So here are two songs that almost always remain in my mind long after their notes have faded.

I love music and words that combine to become aurally hypnotic. REM's "Maps and Legends" does that for me. "Maybe these maps and legends have been misunderstood." The descant that Mike Mills sings behind Michael Stipe's strange and only partially understandable (in both senses of the word) lyrics are what I wish I could have sung as a backup singer. They are borderline ecstatic, a word I've used more than once this week.

Watch on YouTube

Here's a link to my last entry, which will, if you're patient enough, lead you to all my previous entries.

But I do have one more song that I replay in my head repeatedly on some days: It's "LLM," a song written and sung by Hwa Sa, a KPop singer whose voice sometimes makes me feel as if it can hurt and heal at the same time. She's doesn't fit the Korean image of demure femininity and she's perfectly fine with that. I like her songwriting, and one of her most recent songs, "Good Goodbye" is another favorite of mine. But "LLM" is the one that stays with me. To a small extent, it's the beautiful, disturbing, and eventually hopeful music video. But ultimately, it's her voice and the melody that keeps it in my head.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: the home office

Music Meme, Day 23

A song with a color in the title:

I knew almost immediately what song I wanted to share to fulfill this requirement. Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Lights 'til Dawn." Her lovely, throaty contralto makes this song particularly sensual. The loping rhythm is just right and the band backing her does her proud.

Watch on YouTube

As is usually the case with me, I remembered another song with a different type of fascination: REM's "Green Grow the Rushes," from their amazing album "Maps and Legends." I've heard that the band had a complicated, somewhat ambivalent relationship with the album, although I can't find what I recall was the story where I read that. Perhaps it's just a fable ... anyhow, I used to play the entire album almost every day on my way to work. I was hypnotized by the single "Maps and Legends" and sometimes played it on repeat. "Green Grow the Rushes" was another song that felt like the world Stipe wrote and sang about was taking a breath, getting ready for the rest of this Southern Gothic masterpiece of an album.

So here in its hypnotically resplendent Southern Gothic glory is "Green Grow the Rushes."

Watch on YouTube

Here is a link to my last post, which in turn holds links to previous entries.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: REM, Green Grow the Rushes

Music Meme, Day 22

A song with a long title

It's late, and I'm tired, but I couldn't resist the hunt for a song that had a long title (and Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious doesn't count). My brain is better wired for short titles, although I've more than occasionally indulged in long titles for my stories, so figuring out music that met this requirement took a bit of thought.

The first one I settled on, REM's "How The West Was Won and Where It Got Us" didn't feel right to me, although I love the album it's on, "New Adventures In HI-Fi"

Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" was nowhere near as long, but I think it fits my particular bill.

Watch on YouTube

Then again, I feel rather odd this evening - must be the extreme weather outside earlier this evening, so I just wanted to share this. It isn't a song, nor does it have a lengthy title, or at least not as lengthy as other classical symphonies have, but in my tired mind, it fits the bill again. I have no idea why.

Perhaps I can say that, while the title of this isn't long, the piece itself is satisfactorily un-short. I used to love putting this on on Sunday mornings back when I was younger, and listening to it again might be in my future as well.

Watch on YouTube

Earlier entries can be found in yesterday's post. I'd include a link, but either my laptop or Dreamwidth isn't allowing me to do so.

Current Mood: odd
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Henryk Górecki, "Symphony No. 3, Op 36"

Music Meme, Day 21

A song that you listen to at 3 a.m. in the morning

I decided to get back in the music meme game after

owlboy picked up the exercise and commented that they got the idea from me. And of course, Day 21 asks me to share a song that I listen to in the wee small hours. There are at least a couple of problems with that. First, I rarely stay awake past 10 p.m. these days because I am older than the solar system. Secondly, on those extremely rare occasions when I think about being awake at that time, I find myself imagining walking outside and listening to the relative silence of Chicago at 3 a.m. Much as I love music, walking outside at that time of day calls for silence.

So what music could I possibly show you? I couldn't think of anything at all for a while.

My first choice isn't one piece; it's a rotating number of somewhat-more-than-ambient pieces (I think there are somewhere between five and 10 pieces) by the owner of a YouTube radio station, Cyber Jazz/Blues Ambient Radio (which I talked about in an earlier post). Its music has what is clearly a deliberate nod to the original Blade Runner movie, with titles such as "Deckard's Blues" and "Rachael". It shares both feeling and sound with the movie's soundtrack, although it's a lot more limited. I find it very soothing, and it feels like nighttime music or, at the least, music for nights of rain glinting off neon illuminated streets. And in that world, one could walk through the rain at 3 a.m. and this music would be appropriate.

Here is the link to that station.

But there are other 3 a.m. songs. Although I'm not generally a fan of Frank Sinatra, I reluctantly admit that his rendition of this song is better than that of the crooner I like better, Tony Bennett.

Watch on YouTube

Still, Cyber Jazz/Blues feels closer to what I would listen to at 3 a.m.

My previous entries in this meme can be sussed out via my Day 20 entry.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Cyber Jazz/Blues Ambient Radio

Music Meme, Day 20

A song with a number in the title:

One of the musical geniuses that Bob introduced me to years ago was Harry Nilsson. Until he helped me take a deep dive into Nilsson's work, I think I'd only heard "Everybody's Talking." After I emerged from the dive, I loved everything he ever wrote or performed. When he was young, his voice was angelic. After a few years of hard, hard living, it was no longer angelic, but it was still sweet.

There are so many Nilsson songs I'd love to share with you - Jump Into the Fire, Good Old Desk, Remember, I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City, and so many more - just for the joy of listening to his robustly, seriously whimsical lyrics. But the meme on Day 20 asks for music that has a number in its titles, so I'll stick with that.

As it happens, there are two Nilsson songs with a number in the title. "One" is the first one, and it's beautiful.

Watch on YouTube

But Nilsson wrote another song with a number as its title: 1941. This is semi-autobiographical and is a perfect example of how Nilsson could mix whimsy with sorrow.

The previous days are available via this link.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Nilsson "1941"

Music Meme, Day 19

A song to drive to:

Years ago, Bob and I, and Drs. Bob and Gonzo (respectively the husband of Dr. Gonzo, and his wife, our 300-pound Samoan Attorney*) went on a legendary road trip from Chicago up through Toronto and east through Quebec, New Brunswick, and down to Nova Scotia to visit my mother, thence over to Maine and down to New York to visit Dr. Bob and Gonzo's families. After that, we headed west back to Chicago.

It was a hell of a ride, and we ruined Bob and Gonzo's poor little 4-goat-power Ford Escort. But oh, the memories! Gonzo and I being mistaken for Times Square working girls by a NYPD patrol officer while the two Bobs were behind us in a porn shop, perusing available material ... introducing the doctors to the Bay of Fundy in Halls Harbor and other small harbors, introducing them to my beloved mum and my amazing brother ... dealing with Gonzo's mother, who we learned to llove despite everything ....

And driving. Driving on the flat land between Chicago and Toronto, stopping at an open bar in Toronto for breakfast after driving all night. Dr. Gonzo discovering how much fun it was to drive 80 mph (she'd worried about that, until we were passed by an RCMP car going even faster). Dr. Bob discovering how much he loved driving up and down hills in Maine, shouting "Banzai!" as he did.

Going up and down small hills, then longer hills, higher hills. The hills everywhere on our trip were part of the fun.

My first big hill came accompanied by this song; heading down faster and faster, while the Boss told us about the girl he's in hopeless love with, while the bass and keyboards anchored the song that threatens to go off the rails with his longing, with the multi-part ending not letting go until absolutely necessary.

To this day, I remember the joy of going faster and faster to this song. It's probably lucky that I don't have easy access to it while driving these days.

Here's the original from his breakout album.

Watch on YouTube

Here are links to the previous days of this meme. Day 17, and Day 16 cover the waterfront.

Here is a live version of the song in all its overheated glory All iterations of his E-Street Band were and are fantastic. This was from a performance before the deaths of keyboardist Danny Federici, and The Big Man, Clarence Clemens.

Watch on YouTube
* Ed Sunden gave our beloved bass playing lawyer the sobriquet Dr. Gonzo, naming her in honor of Hunter Thompson's sidekick from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the amazing Oscar, Zeta Acosta, an attorney, writer and activist in his own right.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Bruce Springsteen "She's the One"

Music Meme, Day 18

A song that reminds you of somebody:

When I first came to Chicago in 1981, I stayed with one of the friends I'd made when I attended Suncon, the 1977 world science fiction convention, and my very first convention. His name was Ed Sunden and he was overwhelming. He was awful and generous, outrageous and brilliant, manipulative and kind, and definitely sui generis. He loved music, and he loved introducing me to New Wave music that was definitely new to me - the Police and Elvis Costello among the groups he loved.

His way of introduction? He would tell me to sit down in the tiny living room of the basement apartment he shared with Joan, the woman who became his wife. Or rather, he would order me to sit down, and then he'd put on an LP, or power up a tape he'd recorded on his music system (primitive by today's standards, but incredibly impressive back in 1981.) Sometimes he'd play the same song twice, to make sure I understood the words.

All these years later, and 25 years after he died, it's Elvis Costello's songs that immediately bring Ed and that dim little apartment singing and shouting back into my mind.

I thought of sharing "Oliver's Army" with you, because it's one of the Costello songs that really hit me when I first heard it. Unfortunately, and despite the fact that Costello wrote the song as an anti-fascist tune, it uses at least two racist slurs that I'm uncomfortable listening to these days. He wrote it after being in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and the Oliver he sang of was Oliver Cromwell, who invaded and conquered Ireland. British fascists have taken Cromwell as one of their own, so Costello's brutal parodying of fascism and how it sucks working class kids into a losing game in this song is close to perfection in terms of the written word. Still, the racial slurs, parodies though they are, made me nix this tune.

In its place, and most definitely one that still makes me think of Ed, is "Pump It Up." Enjoy, and if you want to know my previous answers, go to Day 17, and it will give you access to all the previous songs.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Elvis Costello, "Pump It Up"

In an Effort to Palate Cleanse After Today ...

... it's the return of the Music Meme ...

... and it's Day 17.

A song about being 17:

Oh, was there ever going to be any other song?

Even though I first heard the song well after I left 17 behind, Janis Ian's song spoke to me in a general sense. I understood it, even though I hadn't suffered what she undoubtedly suffered during her own school days. I'd suffered smaller heartbreaks in high school, for the crime of being weird. Besides, her writing was beautiful. So of course, I loved it. Teenagers have it tough, y'all.

Watch on YouTube

Years later, I learned she was a science fiction fan, and she wrote a song about that, and put it to the music for "At Seventeen." Here it is. (I don't know if it was written for SFWA, or for the Nebula Awards; Geri, if you're out there, can you tell me? It was the title of her rewritten song, "Welcome Home," which she repeats more than once in the lyrics, that hit me harder than "At Seventeen" ever did. That's what I felt when I discovered SFF fandom; I'd found a home.

Watch on YouTube

Even later, I had the chance to listen to her live when she played a gig in Evanston. Afterwards, I spoke briefly to her about how much I loved that, especially the mention of Cordwainer Smith, one of my favorite weirdly beautiful writers. It turns out that she was also a Smith fan. That was as much a gift to me as "Welcome Home" was

If you want to see any of my earlier answers, visit Day 16 The links are at the bottom.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Janis Ian, "Welcome Home"

Music Meme, Day 16

A song from a television soundtrack:

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica was one of the best SFF shows of the 1990s - in fact, it may be the best SFF show of all time (with The Expanse only a hair behind it), at least in my opinion. Its soundtrack by composer Bear McCreary is a major engine driving the story, underlying the incredible writing and acting that made BSG the classic that it became. McCreary, who also composed for shows such as Outlander, for which he won an Emmy, became known during his tenure on all four seasons of BSG for what fans lovingly termed "the poundy drums." They're here in this song, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

In his reimagining (there's that word again) of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, McCreary did what I initially thought was impossible. Who could be arrogant enough to rescore that song? He was, and despite my initial wariness, I came to love his version even more than Dylan's. It plays during a key point in the show's third season, and the show's producers were absolutely right to go with it. I'm including two versions here: the one on the Season 3 soundtrack, and a live version that McCreary directed during a night of BSG music played live several years ago.

Watch on YouTube

Before I add the live version, here are my previous meme answers, starting with Day 13 (which has a link to the 12 previous answers, and adding Day 14 and Day 15.

Finally, here's the live version of the song.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: BSG "All Along the Watchtower"

Music Meme, Day 15

I've been surviving very cold Chicago; I've been adulting, doing the Green Card renewal (which the CIS folks just sent me two letters stating my case is "in process," huzzah) and getting my Rexulti program application for 2026 ready for delivery to my delightfully old-fashioned shrink and The Amazing Nicki, and spending more time than I should cooking and baking rather than reading. But it's time to put all that behind me and return to my music meme, at least until I can think of interesting things in my brain that others might like to hear about. Therefore, I bring you -

A song from a movie soundtrack:

I've read The Lord of the Rings trilogy more times than I can remember. I also watched the three movies, both theatrical and extended release, dozens of times in total, in theaters, and at home. I love both the books and, with caveats, the movies.

I believe that the ending of The Return of the King, the third movie, is as close to perfect as it could possibly be. A major reason is the song written by Annie Lennox and Fran Walsh, with music by Lennox and Howard Shore. The words, which take from one of Gandalf's comments to Pippin before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and speak of Elves being called home to the Undying Lands, get me every time.

This could have been the song I chose as one that makes me cry, but it's for that strange mix of grief, awe, and yearning that is somehow transmuted into joy. And of course Annie Lennox's voice is the wind that fills the sails as the ships leave the Grey Havens.

Watch on YouTube

Here is a link to Day 14 and to Day 13; should you desire, you can see what I yammered on about in earlier meme iterations.

.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Annie Lennox "Into the West"

Music Meme, Day 14

A song that someone showed you:

I'm going to go with one that I saw one of my favorite reactors, Roscoe, react to this morning, "Save Me" by BTS. (He actually reacted to it some time ago, but there's a "Roscoe reacts to BTS video marathon going on and I dropped in just in time to see the music video from their early days, and to listen to the song.)

The tune has an extremely catchy hook, and I'm impressed by the fact that both the camera operator(s?) and the group members were working on ground that was partly shifting sand and still managing to both sing and dance (with some pretty complicated choreography) during a number of single-shot camera works.

I didn't enter Kpop via BTS, the way so many people, including those I've met through the Couch Crew discord community, did. I enjoy their music when I hear it, but I'm not Army (the name of BTS's fandom). Despite that, I can appreciate a well-written tune and some smart choreography, even when it's obvious the group and the producers didn't have much money which with to work. So here you go.*

Watch on YouTube

* I thought about using "Spring Day," which was part of the reaction marathon, but it's pretty intense, with regard to its subject, and I didn't want to put that into the post.

Also, here's a link to Day 13 which in itself has a link to the previous 12 meme answers.

Current Mood: chilly
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: BTS "Save Me"

Music Meme, Day 13

The first song that plays on shuffle:

Well, the first difficulty is that I, being monotonously linear, don't use shuffle. I think I've used shuffle on my winamp list (yes, that's how old I am; I love winamp) once, and I stopped using it almost immediately. I like organizing my lists in a way that makes sense to me. So I thought I'd have to scratch this entry. Next, I thought I'd just pick one of the songs that are halfway through my current 111-song list.

But then I thought I'd try to be true to the meme. I toggled "shuffle" and waited for the first song. It turned out to be Stray Kids' recent piece, "Ceremony."

Welp. It's one of the rare SKZ pieces that I respect, but not one I'd necessarily introduce a Stray Kids newbie. Still, rules are rules, and here you go. It really is a good song. It's just not one of my multitudinous SKZ favorites.

Watch on YouTube

So I'll also include one of the songs I pinpointed as being smack dab in the middle of my list, or at least as smack dab as an uneven list allows. It's a piece by the Irish duo Saint Sister, called "Causing Trouble." I think I might have shown the actual music video for the song at some point in the past, but this is their live performance of it, many years ago. It's definitely one that I love, and sing along to. They're whip smart and lovely.

Watch on YouTube

And I'm just going to link you to the last meme entry I made, so that you can catch up on previous entries, should you desire.

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: RM "Everything Goes"

Music Meme, Day 12

A song that you feel nostalgic about:

The meme actually states "a song that you feel nostalgic to" but that makes little sense. On the other hand, I have been thinking about what song I might actually feel nostalgic about for the last day or so.

Yesterday it came to me; the instrumental pieces that I listened to on my mother's "Mantovani Manhattan" album (For years I've thought the album was called Mantovani Does Manhattan, but that doesn't seem to be the case.)

When I was about nine or 10, I listened to both sides of the album again and again. And again. And yet again. One of the reasons I know my family loved me was the fact that no one came into Mum's room, grabbed the record and broke it over my head. It didn't matter to me that Mantovani was apparently considered middle-brow at best - frankly, because I didn't know, but I wouldn't have cared even if I did.

I confess that I was fonder of the A side, because it had my favorite pieces: Harlem Nocturne and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. I can't tell you today what precisely drew me to those pieces. I think I liked the music of Harlem Nocturne better than Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, but I kind of liked the title of Slaughter - and it was quite the overblown piece, which probably also appealed to me. I didn't know until I started putting this post together that Slaughter on Tenth Avenue was originally the name of a 1936 Balanchine ballet with music by Richard Rodgers. It was also the nane of a 1957 movie about New York waterfront union wars, or so states Madame Wiki. I think I'd like the ballet better.

Anyhow, here are my two favorite pieces.

Watch on YouTube

(And here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11)

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Mantovani: Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

Music Meme, Day 11

A song that reminds you of summertime:

The moment I read this, a completely inappropriate song - Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime" - was right there in the front of my mind. I know why; I heard it during the summer between Grade 9 and Grade 10, when friction between my Granddad and me made my Mum and Nana decide to send me to stay with my Great Aunt Bobbie at her summer cottage in Shediac, New Brunswick.

There were a fair number of teens spending their summer at Shediac, and so I got a chance to do a lot of things which, while not completely inappropriate, did involve youthful parties with beer and dope. I managed to stay out of the kind of trouble that would have forced Bobbie to report on things back home. And "In the Summertime" was the song I remember most fondly, despite it being problematic these days.

Of course I got older, and learned other summer songs, not least of which were the many versions of Gershwin's Summertime - too many from which for me to choose for this meme.

There was one more summertime song that I fell in love with, and which I associate with my love of Bob and of my adopted city. (Those of you who know Bob may spot at least one of the reasons.) So I give you Summer In The City.

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Here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Mungo Jerry "In the Summertime"

Music Meme, Day 10

A song from your childhood:

This one was easy for me. This is a song that my Nana used to sing to us when we were children. I used to love hearing her sing it; she had a lovely voice. None of the versions I found have precisely the same notes in the first line that Nana used to sing, but that's probably a good thing. If I heard it sung the way she sang it, I'd probably be a weepy mess.

Here you go.

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The previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: The Rose, "Ticket to the Sky"

Music Meme, Day 9

A song with three words:

It's been rather too long a day, at least in terms of my having to put my brain to use, but I'm almost through it now. And before I totter off to bed, I thought I'd return to the music meme. Today's entry required me to put my head together with Bob. We ultimately agreed on the choice I made.

Please note that the English translation of the name of this piece has the requisite three words - Lord have mercy. I am no longer a believer, or at least only an intermittent believer in something that probably isn't Christianity; however, I did choose this based on memories from when I was a believer. I'm not familiar with the music, certainly not enough to choose a good, bad, or indifferent version. I went through a number of choices on YouTube, but ultimately decided to keep it simple and go with a brief chant. For more information on why looking into the music of my birth faith can be fascinating, I direct your attention to Madame Wiki.

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Here are the previous days' entries: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8

Goodnight, all.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Something nonreligious

Music Meme, Day 8

(I imagine I'll start posting about life, the universe and everything eventually, but to date, I've been enjoying the music meme. It's mostly for me, obviously, and I don't expect too many comments, but I kind of hope a few of y'all dip into some of the music I'm sharing. Don't worry, though; that's not a requirement. Heh.)

An underrated song

I think I'm stretching this question almost to the breaking point, when I share two versions of Canadian singer Amanda Marshall's song "Birmingham," but I'm fairly sure Marshall - who is a force of nature, something I learned decades after discovering her music whilst on a trip back to Nova Scotia with Bob and Andy - isn't very well known down here. "Birmingham" was the only song of hers that charted in the U.S., something she doesn't appear to have worried about too much.

She didn't write the song, although she's gone on to write and co-write a lot of other tunes, but I loved how she interpreted it. She ended up taking a hiatus for a number of years while she fought a legal battle against her label but she was back with a vengeance in 2023.

So yes, this is a criminally underappreciated tune down here, but not up in My Home and Native Land. So have two versions; the one she released in the 90s, and one she played in 2023 (with a slight addition ahead of time of one of the songs she co-wrote, largely about her own situation as a bi-racial Canadian; then she goes into Birmingham and tears up the place.

Here's the original:

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And here, my friends, is Amanda Marshall as she is now. I wish I had a quarter of her energy.

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Here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Amanda Marshall "Birmingham"

Music Meme, Day 7

A song title that is in all caps:

This one was very easy for me, since I've been obsessed with ROAR, a song written by and performed by Mingi, one of the members of Ateez; it's on their latest album release and it's truly different from the other songs on the release. Mingi's stage present is amazing - especially when you consider that, despite his onstage persona, he's afraid to have his ears pierced and he doesn't drink. I think he jokes about being a princess, or perhaps it's his comrades who tease him with that title; he's apparently a sweet marshmallow in real life. I saw a meme showing him being described as "A princess the size of a small building." (He's the second tallest member of Ateez, and he's bigger than his best friend, Yunho, who is the tallest, but is a drink of water comparatively.)

Can you tell I'm a little obsessed with him and his song? No? Yes?

Heh.

Anyhow, here are two versions of the song; the official MV, and a live performance video, showing his explosive power and the interplay with his dancers.

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Here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

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Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Mingi, "ROAR"

Music Meme, Day 6

A song title that is all in lower case:

I was sure this one was going to be difficult, but it turned out to be easier than I thought. This is a song by RM, the leader of the juggernaut KPop group BTS. It was on his "Mono" album from about seven years ago. It's largely low-fi, and I love listening to it when I want to slow my mind down; when I just want to breathe. I had forgotten that the title of this song, "forever rain," was in lower case. I hope you like it - the music video art suits it. I notice that this is the second time I've picked a song from "Mono" for this list.

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Here are my five previous answers.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Stars and Rainbows"

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kaffy_r

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