Love Me Do ( how on earth was that a #1 song?)

It wasn't.

Ask Me Why

Here's a recording of the interview with Ian Wagner . . . Shades of Cool, WUAG FM (lo-fi rendering):

http://jananddean-janberry.com/sounds/2016_07_12%20(jan%20&%20dean).mp3

Ian is very knowledgeable on the subject, and it made for a fun evening.


Music and Discussion . . .


TRACK LIST:

"Drag City" — Pop Symphony (1965)

"Jennie Lee" — Jan & Arnie (1958)

"Baby Talk" — (1959)

"Surf City" — (1963)

"Honolulu Lulu" — (1963)

"Drag City" — (1963)

"Dead Man's Curve" — (1964)

"I'm Dying To Give You My Love " — Pixie (1961)

"I Adore Him" — The Angels (1963)

"It's As Easy As 1, 2, 3" — (1964)

"The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" — Isolated Vocals with Brass and Woodwinds (1964)

"Ride the Wild Surf" — (1964)

"The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association" — (1964)

"(Here They Come) From All Over the World" — (1965)

Filet of Soul — Original Concept Excerpts (1966)

"Batman" — (1966)

"Like A Summer Rain" — (1966)

"Girl, You're Blowing My Mind" — (1968)

"Carnival of Sound" — (1968)

Nice! I love Ian's show.

Ask Me Why

Incredible band, but my favorite songs of theirs are the deep cuts from the 70s like Death On Two Legs, The Prophet's Song, White Queen (As It Began), Mustapha (so my jam), Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Son and Daughter, Stone Cold Crazy or You Take My Breath Away.

twist and shout for me

Twist & Shout

Guys, you're supposed to vote the worst not the best!

A Taste of Honey

Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends

[Da Capo]

Great idea for a topic, Ovi.

Well, there's Love's second album Da Capo. Five fantastic songs on side one (their finest hour in my opinion, despite Forever Changes) and an interminable jam on side two!

Incredible songs on side 1 indeed, though I like some parts of Revelation as well.

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (first side electric, second side acoustic)
Beach Boys - Today (first side rockers, second side ballads)
Sam Cooke - Ain't That Good News (first side up-beat, second side orchestrated ballads)

I've been thinking about doing a Beatles Survivor to answer this very question. Any one up for it?

Yeah.

[Please Please Me]

Please Please Me: Twist & Shout

With the Beatles: All I've Got to Do

A Hard Day's Night: A Hard Day's Night

Beatles for Sale: I Don't Want to Spoil the Party

Help!: Ticket to Ride

Rubber Soul: In My Life

Revolver: Tomorrow Never Knows

Sgt. Pepper: She's Leaving Home

The Beatles: Happiness is a Warm Gun

Abbey Road: Something

Let It Be: Two of Us


Bonus:

Magical Mystery Tour: Strawberry Fields Forever

Yellow Submarine: Hey Bulldog

Past Masters Vol. 1: Yes It Is

Past Masters Vol. 2: The Ballad of John & Yoko

I really think Paul missed John as a collaborator. 

The last Paul album I really liked was Flaming Pie in 1997. 

I thought Driving Rain had a few decent songs, notably Lonely Road. 

But, most of his 2000s material has been pretty boring, and I haven't purchased anything since Memory Almost Full. 

I'm not much of a fan of Flaming Pie, I think most of it is pretty bland and boring. I struggle to remember the songs, which is not characteristic of Paul. And when he tries to rock out, he just sounds old. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was much better I thought, excellent production from Nigel Godrich of the Radiohead fame and a vulnerability that Paul hasn't expressed before.

[It’s like listening to a Beach Boys' song.]

I know this isn’t huge, but The RZA (Wu-Tang mastermind) briefly mentioned The Beach Boys is an interview with RollingStone.

Here is the excerpt:

RZA: I think as far as my energy is concerned, I’m definitely at the level of life where I kind of take it seriously but don’t take it so seriously. I’ve definitely had fun in my day. It’s gonna be sunny days. It’s gonna be cloudy days. You look at a song like “Ana Electronic.” To me, you’ll never find a song like that on a Wu-Tang album. As far as my performance on it, it’s very quirky. I wouldn’t even say it’s lyrical. It’s not like I’m conscious of my lyrical content. I didn’t care about my lyrical content. Sometimes when an artist writes his lyrics, he’s trying to write the best as if he wants everybody to praise him. In the particular song, I was just having fun. It goes along with the fun in the music and the fun that his voice was bringing. It has not gravitas to it. It’s like listening to a Beach Boys' song.

I wish we could find out what albums/songs The RZA likes from the BB's catalogue. Him talking about Brian Wilson could be a whole interview itself

Thanks for sharing, I'm a huge RZA fan.

[preach non-violence?]

Just remembered another great, great lyric:

"How DOOM hold heat then preach non-violence? / Shhh, he about to start the speech, c'mon, silence"

[Operation: Doomsday]

I've listened to Operation: Doomsday all the way through. And enjoyed every second.

I think another problem I have with a lot of rap (besides the importance of the lyrics) is that it's so intense (to me, at least). O:D is like a breath of fresh air, a brilliant and often hilarious collage with so much going on and some great samples (some familiar, some not).

I've since moved on to Take Me To Your Leader, which has a more wide-screen feel to it.

To be continued!

I know what you mean. DOOM is one of the few rappers that doesn't take himself seriously which is great because at the same time he truly is one of the best. His bragging is cryptic and funny and he deliberately stays away from rap cliches such as materialism with lyrics like this:

"The rest is empty with no brain but the clever nerd / The best MC with no chain you've ever heard"

"I get no kick from champagne / Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all / So tell me why shouldn't it be true / I get a kick out of brew"

The last one is kinda obvious when you think about what kind of lifestyle is associated with champagne in the hip-hop world.

Madvillainy is in my opinion the culmination of what he stands for; pretty much every song is around 2 minutes with no more than a verse. Usually the punchline of the verse is the name of the song (Accordion, All Caps, Figaro) but you don't realize until the very end how that word/those words fits in the scheme of things. There's no big choruses, moreover, there's no choruses at all, no big concept, no big arrangements. Everything is subdued and this came in an era where every rapper had to make a statement with each one of his over-an-hour-long albums. Madvillainy is to Eminem what Ramones were to Yes.

I dig Operation Doomsday a lot too, but some of the samples have not dated too well (those 80s drums in Red and Gold, ugh). I'm assuming you've spotted the Beatles sample.

Glad you enjoy the albums!

I can't stop listening to Young Thug.

Honestly, I really don't get the trap thing. They all sound to me like something you would play at a house party in the background (not for dancing, but just like that). It sounds good, but not something I ever feel the need to return to. Not much substance. And indistinguishable songs. I've tried albums by both Future and ASAP Rocky, some Waka Flocka...

Haven't really listened to Future, but I enjoy some A$AP Rocky.
I didn't start listening to Young Thug until last night, though I actually thought some of his lyrics stood out to me.

Are there some non-trap artists you'd recommend? Lately I've been trying to expand my rap music tastes.
My neighbor has been playing Chance for me a lot recently. I still need to listen to Acid Rap more.

The rap artists I enjoy the most besides the previously mentioned MF DOOM are The Wu-Tang Clan (plus all solo), Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Eric B. & Rakim, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., N.W.A and Dr. Dre. Not any you've never heard of before, but there you go, that's what my hip-hop tastes revolve around.

Another interesting aspect is that DOOM's discography reminisces that of Dylan's in that a lot of his decisions are unexpected and 180-degree turns meant to give fans the unexpected. He's both a rapper and a producer. He made a name out of himself back in 1999 with his debut album, which he both produced and rapped on. Fans dug his persona and his rhyming ability in particular. So on the next release he basically eliminated both, adopting a whole new name and character, King Geedorah, and focused mainly on making the beats, letting other artists rap over them. The fans still dug the album, this time for the instrumental side. So the next release is under yet another different name, Viktor Vaughn, and this time there is not a single beat on the album created by him, only by obscure, unknown producers. Likewise, a few years later, collaborations with two ultra-famous hip-hop producers, Madlib and Danger Mouse, proved to be successful. So now in 2014 he collaborated with a producer that is not only unknown, but has literally done nothing of note before this.

That's pretty cool.

Thanks for the info. I've got three albums on YouTube lined up for dipping into: his debut, King G. and Viktor V, in that order.

Cool! Madvillainy is the real masterpiece though.

Another interesting aspect is that DOOM's discography reminisces that of Dylan's in that a lot of his decisions are unexpected and 180-degree turns meant to give fans the unexpected. He's both a rapper and a producer. He made a name out of himself back in 1999 with his debut album, which he both produced and rapped on. Fans dug his persona and his rhyming ability in particular. So on the next release he basically eliminated both, adopting a whole new name and character, King Geedorah, and focused mainly on making the beats, letting other artists rap over them. The fans still dug the album, this time for the instrumental side. So the next release is under yet another different name, Viktor Vaughn, and this time there is not a single beat on the album created by him, only by obscure, unknown producers. Likewise, a few years later, collaborations with two ultra-famous hip-hop producers, Madlib and Danger Mouse, proved to be successful. So now in 2014 he collaborated with a producer that is not only unknown, but has literally done nothing of note before this.

That's pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewc1hixzYPY

MF DOOM was in the "instructional" video, right? The samples in this are really cool----that piano riff! I suppose that's what I listen out for in hip hop----the track, and not so much the words.

Yup, DOOM was the one with the misleading punchline ("One thing this party could use is more...booze"). I personally love his style, tho from what I've seen he's a hate-him or love-him type artist. It took me a while to get into him. The song I posted is from Madvillainy, the famous collaboration between him and the excellent producer and jazz-aficionado Madlib.

I can't stop listening to Young Thug.

Honestly, I really don't get the trap thing. They all sound to me like something you would play at a house party in the background (not for dancing, but just like that). It sounds good, but not something I ever feel the need to return to. Not much substance. And indistinguishable songs. I've tried albums by both Future and ASAP Rocky, some Waka Flocka...

Fair enough.

Here's a bit I wrote about MF DOOM, my favorite rapper at the moment, on Facebook:

MF DOOM is the natural reaction of a hip-hop era oversaturated with confessional, glimpse-into-their-mind artists. Rappers such as Biggie and 2Pac made hip-hop truly universal by adding the missing piece – that element that made the fans resonate. Maybe we could never fully put ourselves in their shoes, but we understood the feelings of dread, the eternal internal conflicts, the guilt. The suicidal thoughts of Biggie. The temptations of Pac. We, as the audience, connected. I’m referring to both the fans that were alive at the time and the rest who just listen to the albums in present time.

But as the 90s came to a close, way too many rappers were doing that. We needed some mystery. We didn’t need everything to be so Gosh Darn serious and personal. DOOM took it upon himself to embody all those needs. Scarred mentally from the unexpected death of his brother and band colleague in the early 90s, Daniel Dumile as is his real name quit the musical scene and in the next 5 years found himself nearly homeless. He came back though, right when the hip-hop world needed him, with a new name and a mask taken from the set of the Gladiator movie covering his face. Obviously inspired by the Marvel character. But still so much mystery attached to his persona. And to his lyrics as well, always full of metaphors, free associations and ambiguity. He doesn’t throw everything there is to know about him at us, which makes it twice as interesting because it lets the listener’s imagination to run wild. He’s not just the man behind the mask, but also the man behind the curtain.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewc1hixzYPY

Today:

Ghostface Killah - Ironman
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
MF DOOM - Mm..Food
Blondie - Eat to the Beat
Bob Dylan - Slow Train Coming

John correct me if I'm wrong...