82. "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" by Hotei Tomoyasu
This is the song by Hotei Tomoyasu's that is most likely to be recognized by Americans, as it's the song from the Kill Bill movie soundtrack. But Hotei has done a number of different versions of the song besides what you hear on the soundtrack, including some jam sessions with other musicians in which they take turns playing their own guitar solos.
Here's the movie soundtrack version.
And here's a performance he did on the telly. His form of guitar showmanship includes a variety of stances and moves with his legs. Most of them just look goofy--like he wants to finish up his guitar solo because he really has to go to the bathroom. He's got legs, but he doesn't know how to use them.
He had a composer/conductor friend that wrote a symphonic version. While the rest of the symphony had sheet music to cue them on what to play and when to play it, Hotei has to do everything from memory, since he doesn't read music. The video on this is super-choppy on purpose to avoid detection from the YouTube copyright bots, so you may want to just listen and not watch it.
This concert version is played at the regular tempo at first, but then it shifts into funky overdrive at the end.
And here's a concert with Brian Setzer from The Stray Cats and Char, a Japanese guitarist that has collaborated with Hotei on other songs. Setzer's the guy not wearing a pink cowboy hat with feathers in it.
Here's another version with some really famous jazz guitarists that I've never heard of.
The only jazz guitarists I know by name are Earl Klugh, George Benson, Pat Metheny, and Sonny Sharrock.
And now that I've named them, I feel obliged to share some of their music.
I was introduced to Earl Klugh by Elder Anderson on my mission. He's the one that played the guitar song on that tape I sent you from Sweden. He said, "I am Earl Klugh" to psych himself up before he started playing. One of Earl's greatest hits was the following George Benson tune "Living Inside Your Love."
George Benson's soft guitar jazz triggers a lot of memories from the 70s and 80s. Breezin' and Give Me the Night are the two songs I remember best. Here he is playing Breezin' on The Old Grey Whistle Test, which is widely known as the most difficult of all the standardized college-entrance exams.
Pat Metheny--did the soundtrack to the movie "The Falcon and the Snowman" which featured this little ditty in collaboration with David Bowie.
Sonny Sharrock--the man behind the music of Space Ghost Coast to Coast! When Sonny died back in the 90s, they had a whole episode where they played long blocks of his music. If you listen closely, it sounds like Earl Klugh is playing in the background when Space Ghost and Zorak are flying to work in The Phantom Cruiser.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
83. Get on your bikes and ride!
83. "Fat-Bottomed Girls" by Queen
Bums.
Buns.
Butts.
Backsides.
Booties.
Behinds.
Bottoms.
Is there any topic more fun to sing about in all of rock 'n' roll?
Nope.
That's why the funnierest song in the movie "This is Spinal Tap" is "Big Bottoms." The lyrics are a masterwork of non-subtlety, and to get the point across musically, all the guitars are bass guitars, and the drums are mostly bass drums. It's all about the bass.
What song was Spinal Tap spoofing? It had to be "Fat-Bottomed Girls." As kids growing up in Arimo, this was one of those naughty songs that we weren't supposed to know the lyrics to. But somehow we did. And to this day, whenever this song starts up on the radio, I can't resist the guilty pleasure of singing along with the volume topped out.
Of course, there is a particular girl I have in mind when I sing this song. And I'm betting it's the same one you have too. It's because of the "Bicycle Race" song tie-in the band did with the line "Get on your bikes and ride!" Due to that line, the fat-bottomed girl I think of with this song is the push-bike girl on the Paul Hogan show.
Crickey! Those fat-bottomed sheilas make me want to spend some time exploring the beauty of the land down under. Fair dinkum!
Bums.
Buns.
Butts.
Backsides.
Booties.
Behinds.
Bottoms.
Is there any topic more fun to sing about in all of rock 'n' roll?
Nope.
That's why the funnierest song in the movie "This is Spinal Tap" is "Big Bottoms." The lyrics are a masterwork of non-subtlety, and to get the point across musically, all the guitars are bass guitars, and the drums are mostly bass drums. It's all about the bass.
What song was Spinal Tap spoofing? It had to be "Fat-Bottomed Girls." As kids growing up in Arimo, this was one of those naughty songs that we weren't supposed to know the lyrics to. But somehow we did. And to this day, whenever this song starts up on the radio, I can't resist the guilty pleasure of singing along with the volume topped out.
Of course, there is a particular girl I have in mind when I sing this song. And I'm betting it's the same one you have too. It's because of the "Bicycle Race" song tie-in the band did with the line "Get on your bikes and ride!" Due to that line, the fat-bottomed girl I think of with this song is the push-bike girl on the Paul Hogan show.
Crickey! Those fat-bottomed sheilas make me want to spend some time exploring the beauty of the land down under. Fair dinkum!
Monday, May 22, 2017
84. A haw haw haw haw
84. "La Grange" by ZZ Top
Speaking of long guitar solos at the end of rock songs from the 70s, how's about a little ZZ Top?
Have Marcie!
Speaking of long guitar solos at the end of rock songs from the 70s, how's about a little ZZ Top?
Have Marcie!
Sunday, May 21, 2017
85. In the Beginning
85. "Let There Be Rock" by AC/DC
The version of this song you hear on the radio features Bon Scott because that's the front man that originally sang it. Brian Johnson also does a good job screeching out the lyrics in concert. But the song really isn't a showcase for either Bon or Brian. It's all about Angus's driving guitar hooks and raucous solo at the end. How raucous was it? During the recording of the song, Angus played it so loud for so long that the amplifier melted.
MELTED!
Think about that for a second or two. Do you know what that means? It means if Angus wanted to, he could make amplifier fondue!
In concert, this is the song where Angus puts all of his guitar showmanship on glorious display. He stomps and runs and duck-walks and poses and thrashes uncontrollably on a hydraulic stage that lifts him up where he can be idolized by tens of thousands of adoring fans that get blasted with a whirlwind of confetti. Of course, you wouldn't know that from watching the video below. However, it's worth a peek because it contains rare footage of Angus playing the song while wearing an angel's halo instead of his signature devil horns.
It's a hell of a rocker, but we don't hear it very often on the rock 'n' roll radio. I think the song doesn't get regular airplay because it's so long. Billy says if you want to have hit you gotta cut it down to 3:05, and this song clocks in at a little over 6 minutes. But that's just the studio version. The concert versions--of which there are hundreds online--are much, much longer epic riff-fests where Angus lets the Rock Monster loose and whips the crowd into a call-and-response frenzy.
Near the end of my stint at Boise State, I liked to listen to three of these longer versions one after the other while I was working on some mundane HTML coding task. Why three? Because that's about as long as my bladder would hold out. These are loooooooooong songs. How long? So long that they put Albuquerque to shame! Here are my three favorite performances arranged in Benjamin Button order.
You know, after watching these massive guitar solos, I think it's pretty clear who Nigel Tufnel's guitar hero is.
Want more proof? Here's the bootleg long version of Nigel's solo. Let there be rock!
The version of this song you hear on the radio features Bon Scott because that's the front man that originally sang it. Brian Johnson also does a good job screeching out the lyrics in concert. But the song really isn't a showcase for either Bon or Brian. It's all about Angus's driving guitar hooks and raucous solo at the end. How raucous was it? During the recording of the song, Angus played it so loud for so long that the amplifier melted.
MELTED!
Think about that for a second or two. Do you know what that means? It means if Angus wanted to, he could make amplifier fondue!
In concert, this is the song where Angus puts all of his guitar showmanship on glorious display. He stomps and runs and duck-walks and poses and thrashes uncontrollably on a hydraulic stage that lifts him up where he can be idolized by tens of thousands of adoring fans that get blasted with a whirlwind of confetti. Of course, you wouldn't know that from watching the video below. However, it's worth a peek because it contains rare footage of Angus playing the song while wearing an angel's halo instead of his signature devil horns.
It's a hell of a rocker, but we don't hear it very often on the rock 'n' roll radio. I think the song doesn't get regular airplay because it's so long. Billy says if you want to have hit you gotta cut it down to 3:05, and this song clocks in at a little over 6 minutes. But that's just the studio version. The concert versions--of which there are hundreds online--are much, much longer epic riff-fests where Angus lets the Rock Monster loose and whips the crowd into a call-and-response frenzy.
Near the end of my stint at Boise State, I liked to listen to three of these longer versions one after the other while I was working on some mundane HTML coding task. Why three? Because that's about as long as my bladder would hold out. These are loooooooooong songs. How long? So long that they put Albuquerque to shame! Here are my three favorite performances arranged in Benjamin Button order.
You know, after watching these massive guitar solos, I think it's pretty clear who Nigel Tufnel's guitar hero is.
Want more proof? Here's the bootleg long version of Nigel's solo. Let there be rock!
Saturday, May 20, 2017
86. That'll keep you going through the show
86. "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd
The Wall. I should just put the whole album on the countdown in one giant entry. With the way the songs merge into each other (kind of like Monty Python skits), I could almost get away with it. I probably heard it a hundred times when Randy lived with us. He'd play something from it at least every couple days, and I'd make the request to hear something from it just about as often. It had some good mellow stuff that we liked to play while we just lay in bed and listened. This song was the best of the mellow tunes.
Here's a video Randy would have appreciated. It's Dr. Strange singing the doctor's part on "Comfortably Numb."
The song has taken on new layers of meaning as I've gotten older. I was thinking just this morning about how different I am now from when I was kid listening to all this music from the 70s and 80s. I'm really not trying to relive my past, but it can be surreal at times when listening to these songs because every now and then I get a quick flash of memory that brings back the feelings I had back then. And for a moment, it's like I'm that kid again looking at my older self, and I think, "What the hell happened to you?! You aren't anything like the person I wanted to become!"
And sometimes when I think about it honestly, the answer always comes down to the simple fact that I have indeed become comfortably numb. That's when it feels like I'm just waiting for the worms to come.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb
But other times when I think about it, the answer is that there's still that best part of my younger self that's just waiting for me to get over my old-man cynicism and start having fun again. And that young inner Daren got a big boost this last Monday evening when Julie gave me the go-ahead to buy a motorcycle. My brother and sister-in-law said that as soon as I got on the bike, they saw the teenager in me come right out. And I have to say that the smell of the gasoline, and the sound of the engine, and the feeling of freedom I get riding it has really given old-man Olson a real kick in the butt. So, say hello to my 1977 Honda CT 125. It's old and slow and dinged up and needs some parts fixed up--kind of like me. Hopefully, it will help me go from being comfortably numb to comfortably fun.
The Wall. I should just put the whole album on the countdown in one giant entry. With the way the songs merge into each other (kind of like Monty Python skits), I could almost get away with it. I probably heard it a hundred times when Randy lived with us. He'd play something from it at least every couple days, and I'd make the request to hear something from it just about as often. It had some good mellow stuff that we liked to play while we just lay in bed and listened. This song was the best of the mellow tunes.
Here's a video Randy would have appreciated. It's Dr. Strange singing the doctor's part on "Comfortably Numb."
The song has taken on new layers of meaning as I've gotten older. I was thinking just this morning about how different I am now from when I was kid listening to all this music from the 70s and 80s. I'm really not trying to relive my past, but it can be surreal at times when listening to these songs because every now and then I get a quick flash of memory that brings back the feelings I had back then. And for a moment, it's like I'm that kid again looking at my older self, and I think, "What the hell happened to you?! You aren't anything like the person I wanted to become!"
And sometimes when I think about it honestly, the answer always comes down to the simple fact that I have indeed become comfortably numb. That's when it feels like I'm just waiting for the worms to come.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb
But other times when I think about it, the answer is that there's still that best part of my younger self that's just waiting for me to get over my old-man cynicism and start having fun again. And that young inner Daren got a big boost this last Monday evening when Julie gave me the go-ahead to buy a motorcycle. My brother and sister-in-law said that as soon as I got on the bike, they saw the teenager in me come right out. And I have to say that the smell of the gasoline, and the sound of the engine, and the feeling of freedom I get riding it has really given old-man Olson a real kick in the butt. So, say hello to my 1977 Honda CT 125. It's old and slow and dinged up and needs some parts fixed up--kind of like me. Hopefully, it will help me go from being comfortably numb to comfortably fun.
Friday, May 19, 2017
87. I am the King of the Couch!
87. "Ca Plane Pour Moi" by Plastic Bertrand (kind of)
To get me through the boring, repetitive tasks assigned to me at Boise State, I adopted a strategy of listening to French 80s music. Since I speak very little French, the lyrics didn't distract me, but the upbeat 80s vibe kept my mood up. Funny thing about French music--it always seems to be either really sad or really happy. And the lyrics don't even have to make sense when translated into English either. Random French phrases will do. Also, the lyrics don't have to be actual French words. As long as the words sound French, that's good enough.
Let me show you what I mean. Here's "Foux Du Fafa" by Flight of the Conchords. (Didn't you introduce me to this video? I don't remember.) The lyrics don't make much sense when translated. But I guarantee you'll feel happy at least five-and-a-half times before the end of the song.
Also, if a song is in French, anyone that doesn't speak the language will have no idea if the sound they hear is even your own voice. It could be the voice of someone else, and no one would ever know--unless the guy you hired to sing the song in French decides to take you to court and expose your music fakery.
And that is exactly what happened to Plastic Bertrand, a Belgian singer that Milli-Vanillied his way to a hit by hiring a guy named--and I'm not making this up or misspelling it--Lou Deprijck to sing and produce the song. But after Plastic lip-synced his way to fame and fortune with the song, Lou decided to be a real prijck about it and sued for a chunk of cash and the rights to perform the song.
Much has been made on the interwebs of the meaning of the lyrics of this song, which some translators portray as a nonsense song, while others point out that the French idioms used in the song make complete sense. "Ca plane pour moi" means literally, "It glides for me." But from the research I've done on the lyrics, I believe that the best translation of this French idiomatic phrase would be "I'm going to milk the cow."
I don't care. It sounds French. It makes me happy. Plus, there is an English line in it where he says, "I am the king of the divan." Who doesn't love a song that lets you proclaim "I am the King of the couch?!"
Anyway, this became my favorite song played on the French 80s stations I listened to at Boise State. The only problem I have with it is that it came out in 1977, so it really shouldn't be played on a French 80s station. But hey, that's what punk music was all about, right? Breaking the rules!
And one of the non-rules of punk had to do with "pogoing" on the dance floor. Apparently, dancing like you're an epileptic on a pogo stick was a thing associated with punk or new wave music. (I don't know why I did not know this.) The reason I bring it up is that it might be reason that the audience starts clapping in the middle of the song after Plastic pogos.
Fun Fact: "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats was written after the lead singer got kicked out of a Canadian dance club for pogoing. Of course, if you think everyone pogoed like Debra Harry does in the video above, you'd think that it was stupid for the bouncer to kick the dude out. But in the video below, you'll see a more violent form of the pogo. After you see the dancing going on while the Sex Pistol's sing "Anarchy in the UK," you'll probably side with the bouncer.
And now I understand a little better why They Might Be Giants didn't want that kind of dancing going on at their concert. Yikes! (Foux du fafa!)
To get me through the boring, repetitive tasks assigned to me at Boise State, I adopted a strategy of listening to French 80s music. Since I speak very little French, the lyrics didn't distract me, but the upbeat 80s vibe kept my mood up. Funny thing about French music--it always seems to be either really sad or really happy. And the lyrics don't even have to make sense when translated into English either. Random French phrases will do. Also, the lyrics don't have to be actual French words. As long as the words sound French, that's good enough.
Let me show you what I mean. Here's "Foux Du Fafa" by Flight of the Conchords. (Didn't you introduce me to this video? I don't remember.) The lyrics don't make much sense when translated. But I guarantee you'll feel happy at least five-and-a-half times before the end of the song.
Also, if a song is in French, anyone that doesn't speak the language will have no idea if the sound they hear is even your own voice. It could be the voice of someone else, and no one would ever know--unless the guy you hired to sing the song in French decides to take you to court and expose your music fakery.
And that is exactly what happened to Plastic Bertrand, a Belgian singer that Milli-Vanillied his way to a hit by hiring a guy named--and I'm not making this up or misspelling it--Lou Deprijck to sing and produce the song. But after Plastic lip-synced his way to fame and fortune with the song, Lou decided to be a real prijck about it and sued for a chunk of cash and the rights to perform the song.
Much has been made on the interwebs of the meaning of the lyrics of this song, which some translators portray as a nonsense song, while others point out that the French idioms used in the song make complete sense. "Ca plane pour moi" means literally, "It glides for me." But from the research I've done on the lyrics, I believe that the best translation of this French idiomatic phrase would be "I'm going to milk the cow."
I don't care. It sounds French. It makes me happy. Plus, there is an English line in it where he says, "I am the king of the divan." Who doesn't love a song that lets you proclaim "I am the King of the couch?!"
Anyway, this became my favorite song played on the French 80s stations I listened to at Boise State. The only problem I have with it is that it came out in 1977, so it really shouldn't be played on a French 80s station. But hey, that's what punk music was all about, right? Breaking the rules!
And one of the non-rules of punk had to do with "pogoing" on the dance floor. Apparently, dancing like you're an epileptic on a pogo stick was a thing associated with punk or new wave music. (I don't know why I did not know this.) The reason I bring it up is that it might be reason that the audience starts clapping in the middle of the song after Plastic pogos.
Fun Fact: "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats was written after the lead singer got kicked out of a Canadian dance club for pogoing. Of course, if you think everyone pogoed like Debra Harry does in the video above, you'd think that it was stupid for the bouncer to kick the dude out. But in the video below, you'll see a more violent form of the pogo. After you see the dancing going on while the Sex Pistol's sing "Anarchy in the UK," you'll probably side with the bouncer.
And now I understand a little better why They Might Be Giants didn't want that kind of dancing going on at their concert. Yikes! (Foux du fafa!)
Thursday, May 18, 2017
88. This is the politics of life?
88. "Heart and Soul" by T'Pau
This song is the sound of my post-mission summer, which was mostly spent working the 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM shift at the Tupperware factory.
Mmmmm! The smell of freshly molded plastic! It's the gift that keeps on giving. (You can wash it out of your clothes, but not your nostrils.)
On my days off, I tried to keep my same sleep schedule, so I'd watch movies and MTV until I couldn't anymore because Mom and Dad slept in the TV room, and then I'd lay in bed and read the Lord of the Rings or the Shannara trilogy.
I know that sounds like a nerdy thing to do, but I'm definitely not a nerd. After all, would a real nerd enjoy watching a video of a white woman with long red hair rapping about being rejected in love while a bunch of musicians with their shirts buttoned up to the tippy-top button join her to form a band named after a Vulcan priestess?
This song is the sound of my post-mission summer, which was mostly spent working the 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM shift at the Tupperware factory.
Mmmmm! The smell of freshly molded plastic! It's the gift that keeps on giving. (You can wash it out of your clothes, but not your nostrils.)
On my days off, I tried to keep my same sleep schedule, so I'd watch movies and MTV until I couldn't anymore because Mom and Dad slept in the TV room, and then I'd lay in bed and read the Lord of the Rings or the Shannara trilogy.
I know that sounds like a nerdy thing to do, but I'm definitely not a nerd. After all, would a real nerd enjoy watching a video of a white woman with long red hair rapping about being rejected in love while a bunch of musicians with their shirts buttoned up to the tippy-top button join her to form a band named after a Vulcan priestess?
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