#* // JUST MY MUSIC AND THE ROAD ( verse 06. )

[life-of-a-dinosaur]

Current On Rotation: 06/23/23

"Euclid" by Sleep Token

It's taken me a long time to digest the album, honestly I'm still unpacking the masterpiece and the huge swings that Take Me Back To Eden took. It's unlike anything I've heard in this alternative/metal music space. But I'm also new to the metal genre.

The song that has stuck with me the most by far is the closer, "Euclid," and the track feels even more epic as it's a closer not just for this album, but for all three: Sundowning, This Place Will Become Your Tomb, and Take Me Back to Eden.

And what an epilogue this song is, from start to finish. It's almost overwhelming for me to decipher and type out as I relate so much to the song and one's personal journey overcoming an abusive relationship. Hearing Vessel finally releasing Sleep and choosing himself instead was equal parts overwhelming vulnerable and incredibly healing. I cannot imagine how he felt as a human and musician creating this song and the final chapter of this three album long story.

I honestly could write an essay for each verse of the song, but I will try and just pick my favorites.

Beginning with the second verse and the complexity of feelings after overcoming an abusive relationship. It is layered in so beautifully and to me, very meticulously. From wanting that person far from you, but also still caring for them so much that you'd bring HEAVEN to them if they couldn't find it themselves. You'd still put them first after all the hell they put you through.

"But hope to God you don't know this feeling Yet in reverse, you are all my symmetry A parallel I would lay my life on So if your wings won't find you Heaven I will bring it down like an ancient bygone"

DAMN, he'd bring salvation to them, he cares so much for them that he would literally cause the skies to fall for them. I love the use of the word "bygone," as their relationship is now a relic of the past, but also that he would gather the forces, and the power, of the past and beyond for them to see peace.

It's so powerful and confessional that he notes how similar they were, that they were on parallel paths, so of course he loved them and cannot easily let them go. There was a reason that he fell in love with them in the first place.

Then the reminiscence in the following verse and the wondering if they still think of them as the rain falls, then him admitting that he cannot see the fall leaves without remembering them. What a vulnerable admission.

"Do you remember me When the rain gathers? And do you still believe That nothing else matters?

For me It's still the autumn leaves These ancient canopies That we used to lay beneath"

You're almost like, will he go back? Does he have the rose colored glasses on? Is he lost in the nostalgia of how it was in the beginning?

But then the lyrics that were like a tidal wave of relief came through.

"The night belongs to you This bough has broken through I must be someone new

No, for me."

Jesus. I burst into tears when this part hit on my long drive in the winding canyon roads. Then I played it over and over again listening as Vessel took his power back. And I thought about all the years of work that I've done to get back to myself and I cried even more.

Then the intertwining with the repetition of the first and second verses, a copy of a copy, which is what Euclid means, as the song continues, but it's so masterful that it's not a cacophony of sound, but an unwinding of pain and love. Instead he has moved on. Instead he has chosen himself. Not the seemingly all powerful God Sleep, but himself.

The ending lines that are a callback to the opening track of Sundowning, "The Night Does Not Belong To God" with the repletion of lyrics as the song fades out was a beautiful touch and felt like a true ending of the book that was this complicated and brutal relationship.

"The whites of your eyes Turn black in the low light In turning divine And we tangle endlessly Like lovers entwined I know for the last time You will not be mine So give me the night, the night, the night."

And Now, the Night belongs again to Vessel, but it will always hold the memory of their love.

Wow. I'm crying now even as I type this out as the song plays on repeat from my laptop speakers.

I hope that if you need this song, these albums, and this band that it finds you. I hope that it brings as much healing to you as it has done for me and from what I can interpret, for Vessel as well.

Happy Spinz Everyone. <3 <3 <3

[corvuscorona]

you all are either extremely lucky that I can't psychically transmit what's happening in my brain when I hear the chorus of this fuckin song OR extremely unfortunate for the same reason. what the hell, man.

then again, fortunately or unluckily for you it's a pretty short song & I can explain both verses at once so spare a few minutes of your day to play my fun timestamped game if you want. I'll set the scene:

we're on mr bones' wild ride but the wild ride is, like, a car. it's mr. bones' road trip. mr bones' "let's go drive around"; unspecified number of individuals in the vehicle. someone spilled their smoothie & now the cupholder's gross. someone let their fucken tacobell order tilt the wrong way and now there's cheese fusing itself to the fabric of the seat are you with me so far? it gets worse.

how long have we been driving? 5,000ish? of miles? you ask: where do you wanna go? [❓] answers "just drive a little more" & you remember only faintly (we're at 0:45) where you were TRYING to be going ("don't · stop") when you got in the car ("don't · stop stop-stop-stop")

how long have we been driving? 50,000ish miles & the sun's baked the gross cupholder solid. your head hurts. you ask: what do you wanna do and [❓] answers "if you really want an example, idk; see the ocean?"

at 1:00 the clanging of the train crossing (which faded in from silence to precede the abrupt introduction of the fun bouncy beat when the song began) starts up again (⚠️audio danger!⚠️) as [❓] tells us "keep going—" and we freak the FUCK out at 1:06

doko e??? (GO WHERE, DUDE?!??)

but the music doesn't mind (it grooves even harder). 2 blithe lines slip by us like lights lining the walls of a tunnel ("goodbye to the future we had sketched out / nobody knows what lies ahead") and then we reach the part I'm trying to psychically beam directly into your consciousness at 1:10

tomaremiyo (can we like, STOP)

waraenaizo (NO, SERIOUSLY)

hidoi maigo (we're lost as fuck)

yobe yo (call (strong imperative)) JAF* wo (object belonging to "call") sokkou (FASTLY)

↑ thank you to VGPERSON for the CONTEXT as always: the JAF is roadside assistance, here.

but the groovable tune just calls you a "little guitar bitch" & carries on, failing to prevent some manner of devil from speaking (from the passenger seat, or maybe from your seat) at 1:20

tometemiyo (try and stop me)

norikakatta (when followed by the word for "ship," this creates a phrase meaning "there's no turning back now") ga saigo (and that's final.)

bujini kaereru (return safely)

to omou na yo (you won't.)

what the fuck; art. the ⚠️audio danger⚠️ the pressing existential terror & the sheer bouncy "run along, now" momentum of the beat generate a mindscape I've been to before. who among us has not asked ourselves: whose fucking ride is this, and when and WHY the FUCK did I get on it ??????????? ????!!

while at the same time thinking: guess I am on it, though.

[celtfather]

Reaver Drinking Song #280

"If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing – and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order." Zoe’s description of reavers on the TV show Firefly sounds pretty insane. And every time we meet the reavers in the show and movie, they seem just as insane. And yet… they can fly spaceships. I share the story behind my song “Reavers Drinking Songs” today on Pub Songs & Stories #280.

0:25 - Marc Gunn “Molly Malone feat. Jesse Ferguson” from Come Adventure With Me

3:00 - WELCOME TO PUB SONGS & STORIES

I am Marc Gunn. I’m a Sci F’Irish musician and podcaster living in Atlanta, Georgia. Come Adventure With Me comes out on March 4

If you’re new to the show, please subscribe. You can do that PubSong.com or Just send me an email to follow@celtfather.

New Music Video: When She Held Me in Her Arms

What are your favorite songs on Selcouth? There’s a poll in the Gunn Runner’s Club.

5:09 - UPCOMING SHOWS

FEB 24: Maggie McGuinness Pub, Huntsville, AL @ 7:00 PM

MAR 2: The Lost Druid Brewery, Avondale Estates, GA @ 6:30-9:30 PM

MAR 9: Senoia Beer Company, Senoia, GA @ 7-10 PM

MAR 23-24: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX

MAR 30-31: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX

APR 19-21: Jordan Con, Crowne Plaza Ravinia, Atlanta, GA

6:06 - The Elders "Down at the Pub" from Well Alright Then

Featured in show #644

10:12 - JOIN THE CLUB

The show is brought to you by my supporters on Patreon. If you enjoy this podcast or my music, please join the Club. You get something new every week. It could be bonus podcasts, downloadable songs, printed sheet music, blogs, or stories from the road. Plus, you’ll get access to videos like my Coffee with The Celtfather video concerts. Email follow@celtfather !

If you can’t support me financially, just sign up on Patreon for free.

10:53 - THE STORY OF REAVER DRINKING SONG

Inspired by the episode “Bushwhacked” from the TV show Firefly

Check out Episode 3 of In the Verse: Song Crafting

Reavers Drinking Songs Lyrics

"Reaver Drinking Song" lyrics and music Marc Gunn

* Bash their heads flay their skin Make them scream in pain Let ‘em alone and think you’re done Let's start another refrain

Niska was old and scary, A bad reputation And then he heard a reaver scream His body's gone for cremation.

Badger was a businessman Roots in the community A reaver ate his little gang And now he can't even pee

Durran's steak was always rare Before I first met him He met a reaver now won't eat steak He's a vegetarian

Bester loved ships and women They howled when he boarded them He shipped was boarded by reavers. Now He howls when they board him.

Boss Higgins' word was law What he said was set in stone Then reavers hit Higgins' Moon The law is now written in bone

Fanty and Mingo are fine twins You can't tell one from t'other Until they met a band of reavers Now Mingo's the prettiest brother

Jubal was a bounty hunter A sadist through and through He rambled about philosophy While a reaver started to chew

No mercy, they all were weak Cattle for the slaughter Open them up, look inside I think I see Harry Potter

18:23 - Marc Gunn “Reaver Drinking Song” from Come Adventure With Me

20:57 - CREDITS

Thanks for listening to Pub Songs & Stories. This episode was edited by Mitchell Petersen.

You can follow and listen to the show on my Patreon or wherever you find podcasts. Sign up to my mailing list to learn more about songs featured in this podcast and discover where I’m performing.

Remember. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and think about how you can make a positive impact on your environment.

Have fun and sing along at www.pubsong.com!

#pubstories #thehaar #comeadventure 

  Check out this episode!

[cosmicgyu]

Heng:garæ album review

01  Fearless

The melody makes me actually feel FEARLESS. Though that’s a very... ambiguous description... LOVED that they reused the line from Fear to show that they are overcoming their fears and becoming fearless. Amazing.

You know nothing lasts forever But you still can’t end this

02  Left & Right

Love it so much. It makes me so happy and smiley!!! Coupled with the music video, I really can't stop smiling listening to it. It’s so catchy and the message is so important! It’s about empowering and encouraging youths to pursue their dreams. 

Don’t forget when you’re at the starting line Keep your eyes wide open and your chin up

03  I Wish

It’s nice and peaceful, the melody is more lighthearted than I expected. I especially love the moments between verses whereby it’s only the music playing, it sounds like I’m in a nice restaurant with jazzy music. BUT the lyrics are so heavy...

I blamed myself, who was lacking, all day long I look at myself, who is left staring blankly alone Because I was overflowing with countless emotions As if nothing is wrong What a very painful night

04  My My

Goes without saying: My My is an amazing bside. Even Knets were impressed by how much effort they put into their bsides. When I close my eyes and listen to this song, I feel like I’m on an adventure. I feel free. This will be the perfect song to listen to on a road trip... driving along the coast as the sun rises... Plus the bridge of this song is perfection.

Row your dreams beyond the parallel lines Times of happiness fill the pockets of our hearts

05  Kidult

Loved this song the moment I heard it. It’s oddly... sentimental...? And the VOCAL RUNS in this song are indescribably magical. Love emotional songs like this :(

After I brush it off with a smile like and adult I cry like a child too We resemble each other, we are together Just as you are Like a kidult

06  Together

My favourite track on this EP. It’s like an anime opening theme song!!! Together is really Run to you’s less intense sibling. This is quality music. Especially the chorus... our main vocals really worked hard :) And it’s a nice, wholesome, positive ending to the whole album, and ties up the whole message of our youth having confidence in the decisions they make and being hopeful.

In front of us is dark, too dark  Wanna take your heart’s compass out?

Overall

Overall, I really love this album. Seventeen really doesn’t disappoint... The lyrics for all the songs are absolutely beautiful. Our lyricists use such appropriate metaphors to convey emotion :) 

Please give Heng:garæ lots of love, and steam the music videos and vote for our boys so that we can reward their hard work with music show wins! Let’s not have Fear era all over again... they DESERVE the awards, and we know that more than anyone else. So what's left is for us to put in the effort to give them the awards they deserve ♡

[maxsmusicmacrology]

Album Analysis: Best of Crush 40

Halfway through the 90s, everything changed. The PlayStation came out in 94, allowing games with 3D graphics and high-fidelity (for the time, that is) audio. Big Red came hopping onto the scene with Super Mario 64 in 96, and Sonic Adventure came onto the scene at the very end of 98. As a latecomer to the 3D party, arriving over 2 years after Mario had such a successful romp, they needed something special. They needed…

Children’s media! I’m of the opinion that there are two main categories that children’s media can fall into: there’s media that is specifically made for children, like Blue’s Clues or Peppa Pig or those licensed Sesame Street games. Then there’s kid-friendly media that, while made for and marketed towards children, can still appeal to adults. This would be most Pixar movies, shows like Phineas and Ferb, and the object of today’s article, the Sonic franchise.

While there’s some pretty huge differences between children’s media and kid-friendly media, one thing they both have in common is the goal of teaching children a moral lesson. With varying degrees of success. This can be something simple like “stealing is bad”, but oftentimes there’s some greater nuance, like how the protagonist of Inside Out learns to value sadness and other “negative” emotions. But when working with hardware that has some intense limitations, like the NES or Sega Genesis, telling a complex story isn’t easy, which is why Save the Princess plots (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, the opening to Final Fantasy) were so common: it allowed for a moral hero without requiring any deeper discussion. Sonic the Hedgehog went with a bit more of an environmentalist message- saving animals from an evil scientist- which was easy enough to portray in only 16 bits.

Halfway through the 90s, everything changed. The PlayStation came out in 94, allowing games with 3D graphics and high-fidelity (for the time, that is) audio. Big Red came hopping onto the scene with Super Mario 64 in 96, and Sonic Adventure came onto the scene at the very end of 98. As a latecomer to the 3D party, arriving over 2 years after Mario had such a successful romp, they needed something special. They needed…

I’m going to review this album out of order. This is a “Best of” album, so rather than being a picture of the band’s musical vision at any given time, it contains some of their best work from over a decade-long span. What I’m especially interested in is how the music interacts with its respective game and how it evolves with the franchise, so let’s take a look at song #15 first.

Open Your Heart kicks off Sonic Adventure with a bang. It’s the first thing you hear when you boot the game up and it accompanies the final battle. Well, most of it, anyway- part 1 of the battle gets Open Your Heart and part 2 gets generic “tense orchestral music”, which is a flat-out awful decision, but I digress. Tonally, it’s perfect- it starts out tense, preparing you for the fight ahead, and then the guitars kick in to pull you forward. But more importantly… this is why I brought up the moral conflict earlier. The story is simple, so the game leans on the song to deliver its message.

Much of the lyrics are as relevant today as they probably were for most of human history: the quieter intro bit describes various catastrophes, and describes the fear and confusion that follows (much like the one we’ve been living in for the past few months). The song’s chorus is built around a dialectic: Can’t hold on much longer/but I will never let go, but then ends with Open your heart, it’s gonna be alright. Together, these components combine the fear of catastrophe with the innate desire to make things better. It instills the idea that it’s okay to have conflicting feelings about a course of action, then promises that your heart will make the right choice.

Live and Learn is the main theme of the direct sequel, Sonic Adventure 2, and fills the same roles as Open Your Heart. The opening riff plays when the game is launched, the full song plays over the final battle, and it delivers the moral lesson of the game. If Open Your Heart introduces a lesson about conflict, then Live and Learn teaches you what to do when you’ve made the wrong choice. What happens if you trust the wrong people, stay when you should’ve run or run when you should’ve stayed, let something important fall into the wrong hands?

The very title of the song hints at its message- you learn from your mistakes and do better- but to me the line that really hits comes in the second verse. But you can’t save your sorrows/you’ve paid in trade. It recontextualizes all the regret someone feels from a mistake as a sort of currency: it’s not to be saved, kept in your mind and dwelled on- you’ve exchanged it, traded it for valuable life experience. If you focus on the mistake instead of the lesson, you’ll never grow, and it’ll all have been a waste. Not only is it a natural progression from the last song, it’s an absolute banger of a track.

Next up is Sonic Heroes, the intro track to… Sonic Heroes. That won’t be confusing. I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one, it’s not the big moral apex of the game and it’s much more of a title theme than the song the game wants you to walk away from. It’s goofy as hell to listen to, but it always puts a smile on my face.

What I’m Made of is the final battle theme to Sonic Heroes and is, in my opinion, the finale of the Open Your Heart trilogy. Looking at the three songs is a sort of rudimentary 3-act structure: you have the introduction and first conflict, the dark part at the end of act 2, and the triumphant closer. The protagonist takes the lesson they learned through the story and uses it to defeat their opponent. What I have in my two hands is enough to set me free. Use the lessons you’ve learned through hardship to better yourself. The songs form a very nice trilogy when viewed like this that parallels the games quite nicely, and I’m confused as to why they’re all out of order on the album.

That finishes off the Adventure and Heroes saga, and now onto… Shadow the Hedgehog… god. I Am… All of Me is the opening track to the game and also the first song on the album, and it’s so goofy. It tries to be all dark and intimidating because Shadow is the dark and edgy character, who has guns and says “damn” because he has a tragic backstory, and the character isn’t edgy because he’s a cartoon hedgehog and and the song isn’t edgy because it’s a song about a cartoon hedgehog.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad, mind you. I enjoy it, and in a way it’s a perfect fit for the game. It’s like a kid wearing a vampire costume on halloween: they can try to scare you all they want, but the worst they can do is make you smile.

All Hail Shadow is the next Shadow the Hedgehog piece. This one was originally by a group called Magna-Fi, and was covered by Crush 40 for use in later games when the band broke up. Shadow the Hedgehog features multiple paths and multiple endings, and this is the “true hero” ending when the player makes all the heroic choices. This song does a good job painting Shadow as Sonic’s foil: both of them are heroes from this point forward, but while Sonic is more of a classical hero, Shadow is an anti-hero. Somewhere in chaos we all find ourselves/this destruction is the only tale we tell. The game features Shadow trying to recover his memories and find his true self, figure out who he really is, and this is the song that has him rediscover himself as a hero.

Finally, Never Turn Back is the true ending theme for the game, and the last Shadow the Hedgehog song in the album. This is the “moral lesson” song I’ve been on about so much, and it’s a damn good one. It starts with a slow cover that samples I am… All of Me, then it gets a powerful kick that rings in the rest of the song. The message in the song is similar to Live and Learn about not repeating mistakes, but Never Turn Back gives a sense of a much more arduous period in one’s life. If Live and Learn is about recovering from a mistake, Never Turn Back is about recovering from a long series of them. It’s been a long rough road but I’m finally here/Move an inch forward, feels like a year. It’s very much about cutting yourself free of a bad period in your life and how difficult it can be to even stay put, but the positive vibe of the song reminds us to celebrate the small victories. It’s a bit more mature of a message for a game that… at least tried to be more mature.

I haven’t talked a whole lot about how the music interacts with the events of the game partially because this is a music review, but partially because it’s gone perfectly hand and hand with the music so far. There hasn’t been much dissonance between “rock music that gives life advice” and “young-ish hedgehog learning how to live life”. That’s about to change, though, because it’s time for Sonic 06. At the end of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic declared that he was no one special, “just a guy who loves adventure”. This is when that ceased to be true.

The first three songs we discussed weren’t about Sonic. The singer was a nameless narrator occasionally fighting a nameless opponent. They were relevant to the series, but they could be about anyone. That’s what made them so versatile. His World is the main theme of Sonic 06, and where the other 2 versions of the song existed more to hype up Sonic as a character, the Crush 40 cover was more about the events of the game. As a song, it’s pretty good: it’s a more intense version of the original song, and it’s got a slower but steadier pace to it. But here’s what sets it apart from the other main themes: it’s about Sonic. It’s not a lesson about facing conflict and overcoming adversity wrapped up in an upbeat rock song, it’s about the events of the game and how awesome Sonic is. He isn’t the everyman anymore, he’s an important figure, a chosen one to save the world from this point forward. The music reflects that.

To really drive home this new direction they were going, Sega released two games for the Wii called “Sonic Storybook” games, where Sonic would become the main character of two classic stories: Arabian Nights and the legend of King Arthur. They’re both terrible in… just about every aspect, but the first entry Sonic and the Secret Rings is godawful. The main theme Seven Rings in Hand wasn’t written or originally performed by Crush 40, but for some reason they decided to cover it for their album, so I have to talk about it: it’s trash. It’s a bunch of empty lyrics about nothing with some pretty subpar mixing.

While Sonic and the Black Knight isn’t much better, it at least has a killer main theme. Knight of the Wind as a song is pretty badass, but it suffers the same issues as His World. There’s no more important meaning, it’s just about Sonic being a knight and saving people. It has a few familiar “never give up” themes, but it doesn’t do anything as well as Open Your Heart or Live and Learn. It falls into the Sonic Heroes mold where it’s fun to listen to and less fun to really take apart and analyze. The ending theme (which strangely precedes Knight of the Wind) Live Life samples Knight of the Wind, but that’s pretty much the coolest thing it does. It’s slow and pensive, making a sense of faux-thoughtfulness to cover mostly shallow lyrics.

With Me (Massive Power Mix) is the last Sonic and the Black Knight theme here, and was originally written by Crush 40 and performed by singers from the band “All Ends”. The album features a version performed by the band itself, and the song is unique in that it’s sung from the POV of the game’s villain. As a result, it features a look into a character who walked a “dark path”, weighed down by the mistakes they made. Don’t blame [me] for what I have become. It’s an ideological clash against the values in the other songs, arguing that anyone can be tempted to become evil. It’s deeper than anything in the game, but it’s shockingly good considering its source material.

That does it for the main series themes, but there’s a few others on here- a couple tracks for the racing games, an oddly placed cover of Fire Woman, and a too-slow ballad-sounding original song called Is It You. However, I think I’ve gone on long enough, and I’ve discussed everything I wanted to: how the songs showcased on this album elevate the messages given in the games.

Ultimately, all these songs are mirrors of the game they’re in, for better or worse. For that, I have to applaud the band’s versatility- even if most of the songs are the same genre, they cover a wide range of moods and messages depending on what the game demands. They can write a kick-ass guide to getting over failure or a fun little romp to introduce a game. Even divorced from their source material, many of the songs stand well on their own, and there’s a very good reason why fans of the franchise want Crush 40 to return for future installments.

Videos cited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJYxYzxFyZw Peppa Pig - Caddicarus (warning: weird shit)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWYDUYqhlc&list=PL5F29F0909BF08B56&index=15 - Best of Crush 40 Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voI-9TdS0Jw - Seven Rings in Hand (Crush 40 Ver)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HrOjyltyEM - With Me (Massive Power Mix)

[dailyaudiobible]

07/06/2020 DAB Transcript

1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4, Acts 24:1-27, Psalms 4:1-8, Proverbs 18:16-18

Today is the 6th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward. And we’ve just recently, yesterday, moved into some new territory in the Old Testament as we begin the books of Chronicles. So, let's dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. First Chronicles chapter 2 verse 18 through 4 verse 4.

Commentary:

Okay. Just a couple things to point out as we get moved into this new week. In the book of first Chronicles we’re reading a lot of names and, you know, who fathered who and who his son was and then who his son was and then who his son was and then who his son was etc. etc. etc. and this is kind of, you know, the famous portion of the Bible where people are like, “why are all these names in the Bible?” And even as a kid I would encounter this and be like, “why? Why’s this in the Bible? Like, why would we even read this? Who even cares about this?” And…and that kind of holds true up until today where it's like, “why all the names?” And, you know, when I first began to do this the names, you know, they’re just…they’re…they’re unusual names and difficult to pronounce names, tongue tying kinds of names. So, even I would come passed this and go, “great, this is the Bible. Yes, we need to read this. Yes, yes, yes. But why is this in here anyway?” Until I began to realize this is coming from exile. And then everything started to make sense, because I’ve places where there has been exile and destruction and war and genocide even. And, so when we come to this portion of the Scriptures, we usually talk about this a little bit because when we understand a little bit better it makes us actually want to hear those names. So, I've…I mean I've been places in the world that have commemorated the Holocaust in World War II, the, you know, the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people. And there are museums, many throughout the earth that take a look at this. I've also been to places like Rwanda in Africa where genocide took place and that…they…they have a completely different way of doing things there. They've in some cases just left…left the bodies that have become skeletons where they fell. Like they've…or they've collected the bones of people who were just massacred even in places like churches. They just kind of…they didn't…they’re just…their skeletons are there in part so that the horribleness of what happened won't be forgotten. And it's…well…it’s difficult indeed, but it also makes you never forget, which is kind of the point. The point is to remember so that you don’t have to go this way again, so that nobody, future generations won't forget either, so that they can come back and see where the road leads if things get out of control. And then of course there are like national museums throughout the earth for some of the atrocities that have happened. And, although I haven’t been to every one of those in the world I’ve been to several and in these usually you usually find a quiet room. Maybe it's dimly lit. Like in my mind's eye right now I think of the national genocide memorial in Kigali in Rwanda. And there’s…there’s a room there that's quiet and there are clothes…there’s clothing there of people that were wearing those clothes when they were murdered. And there's thousands of photographs of people who were lost. And then this kind of a big round place you can come sit in the middle of the room just, you know, sit quietly and you begin to hear a quiet voice saying name after name after name after name, never-ending so that those names will be spoken out so that they will not be forgotten. And, so, that what happened that took them off the earth will not be forgotten either. So, here in Chronicles Israel as we've known it all along the journey that we've taken to this point, those people, those 12 tribes are gone. They have no ruling over themselves whatsoever. They have no land. They have no nation. The promised land is gone. The 10 tribes in the north have been carried into exile by the Assyrians and they are gone. Judah has fallen to the Babylonians and the Babylonians have exiled them into Babylon. The homeland is lost. People have been killed. Families have been torn apart. People are all over…all over the place and these names are to remember who they are and what happened to them. And, so, in a real way when we read these names, we’re kind of participating in that same kind of thing. We’re saying them aloud so that they're not forgotten because the intention here, like the Babylonian intention…intention is to move everybody out of Judah, move them somewhere else, move other people into Judah, so that at some point within the next couple of generations there's only the Babylonian Empire, like everything's Babylon. Nobody really has allegiance to some kind homeland and some kind of localized gods and all this kind of stuff. So, they’re trying to obliterate that whereas here in first Chronicles the Hebrew people are trying to not forget who they are, where they came from, and who God is. And that changes things.

And then we flipped over into the book of Acts. We've seen Paul go to Jerusalem, even though he knew what was going to happen and it did happen and he is under arrest and he’s had to be spirited out of Jerusalem to Caesarea on the coast where he can be protected because there's an assassination plot where people have vowed not to eat or drink until they kill Paul. So, it's pretty serious and Paul for the first time now is Caesarea gets to begin to state his case because the Hebrew people, the elite religious leaders have come to accuse Paul. And, so, what we see now is Paul beginning to share the gospel as a part of his defense and in the process he is sharing the gospel with people that he would never be able to meet with likely, like that he would never be able to sit down and have a conversation with. So, he is sharing the gospel to more powerful people than he had access to. And we see Felix today, summons Paul number of times, even though he's hoping for a bribe. Paul is able now to have access to powerful people that he would've never been able to get to any other way. And, so, we’re seeing the gospel continues even though Paul has lost his freedom.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the…the way that it reaches into our lives and touches us in so many ways on so many levels. Sometimes it disrupts us. Sometimes we take a step back and go, “wait. What?” Sometimes immense revelation comes flowing into our hearts where things we’ve been struggling with for so many years, all the sudden clarity comes. We are thankful for this. We are thankful for the living word that continues to be alive within us and we thank You for the opportunity to be here every day to take the next step forward. And, so, Father plant the words that we've read into our hearts today and may they yield the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts, and may that spill out into the world and may we bring light and good news to everyone within our sphere of influence. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and its home base and it is where you find out what is going on around here.

And what is going on around here is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the 7th of July, which may not look like a holiday on your calendar but it's our own, it’s our own little Global Campfire holiday, something that we call the long walk. And it's exactly that. I've been talking about it for the last couple weeks. It's as simple as it sounds. Go for a long walk with God wherever it is that you find beautiful, wherever it is that you can go that you can drink in the fact that God is sustaining this world and pouring out beauty upon us to remind us constantly, but we’ve got our heads in our anxieties and our stresses so much that we not… we’re not even opening our eyes to notice and it's getting crazier and crazier and crazier the more that we try to do it on our own. And this is that moment where we stop the world and we focus on resetting ourselves for the second half of the year and we have the conversations with the Lord that we need to have that we’ve been too busy that we just haven't been able to just without interruption just pour ourselves out and we haven't had the time to sit and listen and be still and know. And, so, every seventh of July we take that day for this purpose. Regroup, reset and move forward into the second half of the year with renewed purpose and renewed awareness of…of what's going on in our own lives but what's also going on like we’re participating in as we move forward in time together on this earth. And, so, that's…man…that's tomorrow.

And we have a new resource, Heart, a contemplative journey that releases tomorrow and will be available for the long walk. You can get it at…at the iTunes store and get it at the Google Play store and have it ready. Like, preorder it today and will be waiting for you tomorrow for your long walk. And it is…it is a conversation starter. It takes us through an hour of guided prayer and contemplative music and leads us to our own hearts, helps us to acknowledge the things we’ve been going through, the things, the emotions that we've been feeling and maybe why those emotions have come, and how maybe we've misinterpreted things, and invited God…invite…invites God into the midst of it all and is a perfect way to begin the long walk and just move into a different space because that's really what we need, is to get out of all that's going on and rest for a day and re-center ourselves on what is true for a day so that we can move into the second half of the year in Spirit and in truth. So, I'm looking forward to it. I hope you're looking forward to it. It's definitely a solitary thing to do but it is a community thing that we do. Even though we’re doing it alone all over the world are doing it together. So, I'm just saying wherever you go, and whether you just got in the backyard or whether you go hours…whatever…wherever you go, whatever you do. Maybe you want to take a picture. Maybe you want to take a little video. Maybe you want to remember this day. And post that comment that…at the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and then we'll post it up and we just have these windows into the beauty of the earth, into the beauty of the long walk all over the world and just little windows into the places in the world we all live and the beauty of the day. So, I’m looking forward to that and I hope you are too.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that lives on the homepage. I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

[bigboxochristmas]

Yuletidings 2001: Seasons of Love

01 Christmas in the Trenches - John McCutcheon 02 Seasons of Love - Cast of 'Rent' 03 Christmas Wish - NRBQ 04 Simple Gifts - Liz Story 05 Snowfall - The Manhattan Transfer 06 Coventry Carol / What Child is This - Tuck Andress 07 Wonderful Christmas Night - Dan Grissom 08 Carol of the Bells - Gregg Miner 09 I'll Be Home for Christmas - The Pilgrim Travelers 10 Stars - Anne Hills & Friends 11 I Wonder As I Wander - The Boys Choir of Harlem 12 Thanks for Christmas - Three Wise Men (XTC) 13 The First Noel - Al DiMeola 14 A Christmas Love Song - Ann Hampton Callaway 15 Little Road to Bethlehem - Judy Collins 16 Wash My Eyes - Greg Brown 17 God Bless Us All - NRBQ 18 Seasons of Love - Cast of 'Rent' with Stevie Wonder 19 Auld Lang Syne - The Beach Boys

------------------------------

This one I definitely remember making in 2001.  A couple of months after the events of 9/11, I made a holiday compilation as usual but then, as the international situation seemed to be going from bad to worse, I decided I wanted something more heartfelt and started over (I later cannibalized the rejected mix for other compilations).

“Seasons of Love”, from the cast album of Rent, isn’t a Christmas song at all, but it just seemed like the right message for that particular time.  In fact, you’ll notice that I included both the original version and the remix, with Stevie Wonder singing lead and playing harmonica, to kind of bookend the collection.  

And as the U.S. at that time appeared to be on the brink of war, it seemed appropriate to start with John McCutcheon’s “Christmas in the Trenches”.  It tells the story of the 1914 Christmas Truce between the British and German lines on the Western Front during World War I from the perspective of a fictional British soldier. Although Francis Tolliver is a fictional character, the event depicted in the ballad is true. McCutcheon met some of the German soldiers involved in this Christmas story when he toured in Denmark.

“Christmas Wish”, by NRBQ, is still one of the all-time best contemporary holiday songs, in my opinion.  It’s probably shown up on more of my collections than any other song.  Lyrically, it talks about seeing toys under the tree and hearing Christmas music in the air, like so many other holiday songs, but each verse ends with the wish that “people all over the world” could have the same experience, and the middle passage, “If we open our hearts, our wishes would come true”, always tugs at the heartstrings.  The instrumental arrangement is pure Brian Wilson, with chromatic harmonicas, toy pianos and kalimbas in addition to the usual instruments.  They also contribute a live version of “God Bless Us All” - again, not an actual Christmas song (it was a minor hit in the 1950’s for several child singers, most notably a ‘Baby Pam’) but the right message for that particular year.  Only NRBQ could take a song like this and make it both tongue-in-cheek and deeply moving at the same time.

Another non-holiday song is Greg Brown’s “Wash My Eyes”, a prayer for both an open heart and for peace in the world: Wash my eyes, that I may see / yellow return to the willow tree.

Open my ears, that I may hear / the river running swift and clear.

And please…wash my eyes.

And please…open my ears.

Wash this world that is one place / and wears a mad and fearful face.

Let the cruel raging cease / Let these children sleep in peace.

 And please…wash this world

And please…let these children sleep in peace.

 Other highlights include a lovely version of “Carol of the Bells”, arranged and performed by Gregg Miner, a collector and restorer of antique musical instruments.  On his two Christmas albums Miner plays over a hundred different instruments, usually overdubbing numerous parts: harps, zithers, tiples, octophones, sitars, and ouds, assorted medieval, Latin American, and Eastern instruments, as well as various guitars, banjos, and mandolins.  Quite amazing as well as beautiful.  Also: the gorgeous a cappella harmonies on Ann Hills’ “Stars”; the stunning combination of the Boys Choir of Harlem with the jazz arrangements of the James Williams Trio on “I Wonder as I Wander”, and XTC’s (as Three Wise Men) classic, the Beatlesque “Thanks for Christmas”. The cover art was a repurposed Christmas card.

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[caveatauditor]

My favorite albums, days 1-10

Friends have requested that I share my favorite albums on social media, preferably with vaguely autobiographical blurbs accompanying them, so to avoid polluting the wholesomeness of my Facebook timeline with music geekery, these are they until I change my mind. I excluded albums from this decade because the decade isn’t over, so the ten gems that follow represent an attempt to make history conform to me.

1. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3

Two discs of Wayne freestyling, bloviating, and holding a conversation over a bunch of sampled and/or stolen and/or obscure music, arranged randomly because in theory the mixtape goes on forever in both directions, a gorgeous tapestry whose details happen to consist of delectable beats and wild free-associative blather. Wayne raps like a child in a candy store, eschewing parsable semantic content in favor of puns and stray impulses and improvised phonetic twaddle and whatever he feels like saying in the moment; likewise, the beats don’t cohere, sonically or in sequence, instead sticking as many hooks as possible wherever possible as often as possible; the overall result comes off like a transmission from the filthiest corner of the id. The ultimate triumph of mid-‘00s mixtape culture, Da Drought 3 is fabulous aural wallpaper and hardly an album at all, so of course it’s my favorite album.

2. Joni Mitchell, Hejira

Given how beloved this album is among a surprisingly large number of my friends, I almost went with the equally astonishing Hissing of Summer Lawns, but let’s be real now--Hejira is flawlessly, magnificently beautiful like nothing else I’ve ever heard. The guitar lines lap and peal over breathtakingly wide, sweeping expanses of empty space--space like the open road, like the southwestern desert in the winter, like the urge to travel and stay on the move, like the empty human heart. The lyrics use the familiar musicianly trope of going on tour as a springboard for a set of travelogue meditations on solitude and perpetual motion, a condition imposed partially by circumstance and partially by internal existential need; she’s moving before the ringing opening chords of “Coyote” and she’s moving after “Refuge of the Roads” pensively winds down. The latter song in particular contains several moments that always, always make me cry, especially during the first verse (“We laughed at how our perfection would always be denied”) and the third (“A thunderhead of judgment was gathering in my gaze”). I’ll never use “relate” as a verb, but I’ve often taken refuge in the road. I always take this album with me, though.

3. Jandek, Blue Corpse

I’m cheating here: Jandek is a relatively new discovery for me, and I’m still working through his ridiculously massive catalog, but I’ve listened to him with sufficient fascination enough over the past year and a half that he deserves a spot. Fans say that Blue Corpse is a good starting point because it’s his most accessible album, but accessibility is a relative concept when we’re talking about experimental atonal lo-fi acoustic quasi-blues fuckery, so let’s just call it his most carefully sequenced--side two builds the way a second side should, starting with an extended harmonica solo before leading into his cover of “House of the Rising Sun” and the album’s ten-minute centerpiece, the lonely, furious “Only Lover”. I love this album so much I could easily imagine a better one lurking in some dank, unexplored discographical corner.

4. Janet Jackson, The Velvet Rope

As a sophomore in high school I heard The Velvet Rope and immediately decided this was the sexiest and most sophisticated music I had ever heard. I was right! To this day I hold a special place in my heart for R&B that confounds the traditional banger/ballad distinction--there are no ballads on this album! With its swirly synthesizer and xylophonesque keyboard chords, “Empty” sounds like a conventional slow song until you notice the second layer of hyperactive drums clicking maniacally atop the core rhythm track: nervous energy disrupting and complementing preternatural spiritual calm. “Tonight’s the Night” is a great cover because the act of covering an established hit mirrors the act of initial erotic exploration, of navigating your way through a series of gestures you knew about before trying yourself; the way she sings “Cause I love you girl ain’t nobody gonna stop us now” is defiantly blunt, unshowy, matter-of-fact. Those are the lyrics! She’ll sing them. Breezy, mechanical, exquisite, The Velvet Rope captures the fragility of intimacy.

5. Fall Out Boy, From Under the Cork Tree

I first became aware of Fall Out Boy in middle school, when the girl whose locker neighbored mine put up a bunch of Pete Wentz posters on the inside of her locker door. I envied her brilliance and poise, since she was obviously way smarter and cooler than me, and I’m pleased to say she was right: this daft, idiotic, magnificent album captures a world of teenage crushes, fixations, stupid feelings poorly rationalized, awkward proclamations blurted out and immediately retracted, aftershave clumsily sprayed on to impress a special someone, the scent of cheap perfume, lipstick stains on your pillowcase and friction in your jeans. It’s so flushed and clumsy it automatically enters the realm of hormonal teenpop utopia, with the crunchy guitars mirroring the anguish in eternal adolescent Patrick Stump’s heart. Pete Wentz writes solecistic, self-aggrandizing lyrics because teenagers in love are supposed to utter howlers like “The only thing worse than not knowing is you thinking that I don’t know” and (sigh) “Turn off the lights and turn off the shyness”. It’s an ode to the enduring power of romantic absurdity, in all its most entertaining guises.

6. Duran Duran, Rio

Like From Under the Cork Tree, only glitzier. Occasionally I play a game with select friends of mine where we try to guess whether a random snippet of doggerel is a Fall Out Boy or a Duran Duran lyric. “It’s just like a scene out of Voltaire twisting out of sight”? Obviously Duran, for citing French philosophy is such a New Romantic move. “We’re well-read and poised/we’re the best boys”? Self-defeating self-objectification is Pete Wentz’s favorite rhetorical device. “The sun drips down bedding heavy behind/the front of your dress all shadowy lined/and the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart”? Too florid; gotta be Duran. “Couldn’t cut me deeper with a knife if you tried/just take a look before you run off and hide”? No clue--blood and betrayal could go either way. “Let’s fade away together one dream at a time”? “Some people call it a one-night stand but we can call it paradise”? Well!

7. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love

As a senior in high school I heard To Bring You My Love and immediately decided this was the sexiest and rawest music I had ever heard. I was right! To this day I know no harsher or more beautiful approximation of what it means to yearn for the sublime. The tiny guitar figure in “Working for the Man”, half-concealed beneath the drums and muffled, thumping bass, devastates because it’s creepy and horrible; the maximalist guitar roar in “Long Snake Moan”, almost as loud and thundering as her distorted vocals, devastates because so would getting run over by a tank. On the rest of the album, she hits every mood between those two extremes, including rapture and delight in addition to all the abrasive ones.

8. Fleetwood Mac, Tusk

I almost went with Tango in the Night, given how my generation seems to have discovered and reclaimed it, with “Seven Wonders” popping up in Balearic dance mixes and American Horror Story. Tusk, however, is a giant compendium of whirring gears and rotating spokes and plinky keys and strummed acoustic guitars and tinkly music boxes and billions of other moving parts, and the totality of the sound correlates with a draining, overwhelming emotional extremity. Lindsey Buckingham fills the space with a bunch of tightly crafted miniatures, distilling his imagined ideal of the Fleetwood Mac sound into the searing anger of “What Makes You Think I’m the One” and “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (Lindsey Buckingham in a song title), but Stevie Nicks gets all the big statements: the thundering “Sisters of the Moon”, the incomparable breakup ballad “Storms” (“Never have I been a blue calm sea/I have always been a storrrrrrm” always makes me cry), “Sara”. Meanwhile, Christine McVie’s “Brown Eyes”/“Never Make Me Cry” couplet is the axis on which the album’s sequence turns. Tusk resonates because it conflates the singer-songwriter confessional urge with the band’s collaborative dynamic, creating a communal space for them all to bask in their shared hate for and exhaustion with each other.

9. Crunk Hits

I needed a compilation, and this magnificent one brings to life my favorite radio format: mainstream hip-hop in the mid-‘00s. Crunk and R&B were everywhere back then; to me this album sounds like New York in the hot, lazy summers of ’05 and ’06, when these songs confounded with their unprecedented hedonism and aggression and delight. Definitively singles-oriented, this music saturated a subsequent generation of hip-hop fans, so that album artistes in this decade like Young Thug and Playboi Carti have internalized crunk’s valuable lessons about shamelessly exposing the id. I couldn’t omit an album whose first five songs are Usher’s “Yeah”, Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz’s “Get Low”, T.I.’s “Rubber Band Man”, Chingy’s “Right Thurr”, and Ciara’s “Goodies”--damn! It’s practically a greatest-hits album for the entire decade.

10. Steely Dan, Gaucho

When I bought this album in seventh grade, I wasn’t aware I was buying the fleetest, shallowest, most efficient howl of anguish ever set to music. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are only ironists insofar as they’re romantics who mask their feelings in inscrutable form. The question with any of their albums, which are basically all flawless, is to what degree they’ll reveal their bleeding hearts, and on Gaucho there’s such a gash in the fabric the blood spurts out everywhere, staining the shag carpet, dripping through the singer’s sleeve onto his fancy leather shoes. The modest functionalism of their slick California studio-rock, the tasty licks and glossy keyboards and sparingly deployed saxophone and sudden sharp bursts of guitar, hardly enters into a dialectic with the desperation and horror of the songwriting--it’s the perfect musical expression for these feelings, as perfection that’s slightly disfigured is so much more devastating than total abrasion (when critics use “Bret Easton Ellis” as shorthand for the demented luxury porn we’ve enjoyed and suffered through this decade, what they really mean is “Steely Dan”). No matter how many glass tables you smash, how many ashtrays you inhale, you’ll never feel as shitty as this record.

[flakandforay]

항상 (HANGSANG) ft. Supreme Boi Analysis

this is the analysis for the 5th track of Hope World.

i will be analysing several components - music and lyrics

disclaimer: this is just my personal opinion, feel free to disagree. do let me know your thoughts in my ask box

overall: i think this is the one of the ‘hardest’ track throughout hoseok’s mixtape apart from base line. initially, it just gave off the vibe of 뱁새, but kinda mix with old hip hop. and a feat of supreme boi, well we all know how lit this would sound.

music: anyway, this maybe one of the only songs of hoseok that doesn’t have some unrelated intro. instead, at the first second, it already dives in to the song. hoseok’s voice emitting this old school style of hip hop. for some reason, I really love the underlying beat that is of a higher pitch etc and the casual percussion. then at 0:11, the whole verse starts off quick with supreme boi. it’s very laidback and it shows his attitude and swag if i do say so myself. then at 0:24, the whole brief chorus is back again with hoseok

then at 0:33, hoseok comes back in with his verse. i really love the tone of his voice here, it’s one of my favorite ones. also, he manages to squeeze adlibs in as well. then at 0:44, he changes the style of his rapping to emphasize certain lyrics as well. then at 0:54, the tone of his voice changes yet again. but one could hear the faint camera clicking and flashing in the background as hoseok just used his speaking tone. then at 1:00, there even is the sound of a phone vibrating in the background as well. then at 1:04, hoseok’s  tone goes back to the one in the earlier part of the verse. honestly love his tone of voice right here.

then at 1:16, it goes back to the chorus that’s easy to follow. than at 1:25, supreme boi starts his verse. he has a very distinct tone of voice now that id think about it. interestingly, also using adlibs to make up for the space. at 1:37, the chorus comes back in again.

at 1:47, supreme boi literally comes back in with an adlib but goes to his verse when there is no beat at all. as if he is doing acapella rap before the beat comes back in at 1:50. at 1:56, i like how the lyrics are more of one words so it’s easy to emphasize etc. at 2:02, supreme boi makes use of his lyrics to enhance his verse. the beat actually still remains the same hence why im not commenting much on it. one could easily tell how easy supreme boi is to get into his zone actually. i like how he easily inserts adlibs in between his lines. at 2:06-2:07, there is this filtered voice of supreme saying ‘never’ before the nextf part of supreme comes in. interesting how they even squeeze in a cough and the sniffling of the nose to make it sound as if it is part of the song etc. at 2:15 - an unconventional way especially since it kinda sounds as if they are sick but interesting. also the way that supreme delivers his lyrics with his tone compliments the whole underlying beat that has been going on in the background.

at 2:30, the chorus comes back again with hoseok and supreme yet again. then there is this quick sound that dissolves in the background as it moves on to the sort of short bridge done by hoseok. yet again, his tone of voice changes together with how the beat is kinda gone now- hence focusing on his voice instead. the only sound left is this other rhythm of a piano that kinda gives it a more creepy vibe but at 3:13 the percussion comes back in with a different beat. a lot of adlibs here as well but are more filtered sounding.

then at 3:25, there is this sound of a gun being shot and then hoseok changes the tone of his voice to sound sharper with more impact much like he is shooting those words out. he even makes it a point that the words sound super staccato not to mention how at the end, he ends with a whisper of ‘hangsang’.

lyrics: i feel as these lyrics are those that show subtle bragging of what Hoseok achieved together with the rest of the boys 

우린 행복해 요즘에 누군 떼 버려 구찌 탭 누군 Kaws Toy 몇백 개 누군 살 집을 고민해 맞고 옳은 것만 우물 밖 보고 좋은 것만 떫은 이 판에 익은 것만 멋진 친구들과 멋진 것만

=

We're happy these days Someone took off the Gucci tab Someone has a couple hundred Kaws Toys Someone's thinking about where to live Only proper and right things Only good things, looking out of the well Only ripe things, nothing bitter Only cool things with cool friends

especially with the whole hundred Kaws toys that are very popular. 

눈 뜨면 Red road (Walking Walking Walking) Top 셀럽들의 Call (Talking Talking Talking) 이 순간들은 다 항상 With my dawg 앞으로도 다 항상 With my thug 일곱 명에게 세상이 발맞춰 우린 같이 항상 항상 Turn up

=

When I open my eyes, red road (walking walking walking) Calls from top celebs (talking talking talking) All of these moments are Always with my dawg In the future Always with my thug The world falls into step with these seven people We're always always together Turn up

here, Hoseok mentions how much they achieved while bangtan is altogether. they are literally at the top right now, top celebrities calling them etc. 

눈뜰 때마다 매거진 1면에 오르네 차트 위에 전셋집을 얻은듯해 Haters better cop out Credit card chops like 가라데 챱챱 Me and my friend, 또 바꿔 트렌드세트 Hol up, man 이젠 너네가 뱁새 정상엔 나와 친구들이 와있지 BTS, ROCKBOTTOM yeah that’s my team

=

Every time I open my eyes I'm on the cover of a magazine It's like I own a house on top of the chart Haters better cop out Credit card chops like karate chop chop Me and my friend, we change it up trendsetter Hol' up, man, now you guys are the crow-tits My friends and I are at the summit BTS, ROCK BOTTOM yeah that's my team

the lyrics here show how bangtan are no longer the crow-tits; in a way the tables have turned. they're the ones at the top who actually started from rock bottom especially with how they debuted from a small company. 

나만의 Rule로 내 Bro와 같이 나란히 걸어 데뷔 전부터 우리만 믿고 풍문은 거둬 모두 적이었고 우리 편은 아무도 없었어 그런 팀이 역전했어 이제 세계를 열어 Feel like 가라오케 불러 흔들어 Check it 전 세계가 원해 우린 18번 Make it 그저 꿈꾸는 대로 모두 현실이 됐지 이제 우리의 Turn 싹 다 쏴버려 Riches

=

By only my rules, I walk Side by side with my bro Beliving just in us since before debuting And harvesting hearsay Everything was written There was no one On our sides Our team came up from behind Now we're opening up the world Feel like karaoke Sing it, shake it, check it The whole world wants us We're 18th, make it Just like I dreamed Everything came true Now it's our turn We're gonna shoot 'em all, riches

here, Hoseok says that they believed in themselves before debuting, in a way that they trained very hard to make it through the cut-throat idol industry, in a way, that they are opening new doors etc. and now they have achieved their dream 

정당성은 개 밥 밥 앞뒤 없이 왈 왈 개같이 당당 객기, 억지, 착각 부려대는 짬밥 그들에게 Pow Pow 우린 떳떳하게 앞 봐 이룬 기록, 상과 그들을 밟아 With ma Label 발판 With ma Fan 감사 With ma Team 항상

=

The justifications are dog food Bark bark with no front or back Openly like dogs Bravado, insistence, delusion The nugus who keep making trouble Pow pow to them We're looking ahead, fair and square The records we set, our results Step on them With ma label, a foothold With my fans, gratitude With my team, always

here, Hoseok reflects back to their debut, especially since they were often called ‘nugus’ in a way to say that they are nobodys especially since they weren't from the big 3. 

but now to say they made it altogether. 

Reference: Genius ©

last thoughts: i must say this song is very interesting in a way it showcases the versatility of hoseok’s voice throughout this whole song. so many tones of his voice that id never knew he had and it gives a whole new sound that ultimately compliments and enhances the song. and together with supreme boi, this is definitely a song that people would walk the streets with their bros.

[Photo Source] Bighit Entertainment  Credits: maxine ☕️ DO NOT REPOST ©

[betterdaysareatoenailaway]

Out on the Interstate: S’more Thoughts on Neil Young

I don’t have any fentanyl stories today, so I’m writing another Neil Young post. (Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to mention heroin. You’ll see.) I still have a ton of fent stories, don’t worry bout that. I just don’t feel like mining my memory for any right now. Instead, I wanna talk about my favourite Neil Young song ever. It’s called “Interstate.” This performance was recorded at Farm Aid 1985. Young’s backing band at the time were called the International Harvesters, which is a funny joke (International Harvester was a company that manufactured tractors and other agricultural equipment). Young was on a roll in the 80s with clever band names. Later on he would front Neil Young & the Restless. Anyway whoever is playing piano with Young was the perfect choice, plucking individual keys instead of slathering big chords all over the descending minor chord progression. Young’s guitar is tuned to drop D, a favourite tuning of his throughout his career, from “Cinammon Girl” to “World On A String” to “Be the Rain,” and you can hear the low D buzzing throughout, giving the song a raw off-the-cuff feel. Of course, Neil Young is known for his raw performances, especially on albums like Tonight’s the Night, but by the time the 80s rolled around he was making albums with a lot of processing and production like Landing on Water, along with silly genre exercises like Everybody’s Rockin’ and Old Ways. 

Young would eventually be sued by his own record label, Geffen, for making “uncharacteristic music.” David Geffen would eventually apologize to him, but he wasn’t wrong that Young’s early 80s records were a bit of a disaster. This performance, however, shows that Young hadn’t lost a single step when it came to live performance. His vocal is clear and convincing, world weary but still kinda defiant, like all his best songs. And whether those are real or synth strings, they sound great, and really tug at one’s heartstrings. They have the spook, that high lonesome train whistle feel. To my ears, all the best Neil Young songs are haunting and plaintive. There is a loneliness at the heart of most of Young’s best work (ever hear “Albequerque”? Prolly the saddest song to ever mention the eating of ham?) Neil Young doesn’t write carefree party music. Hell, he once recorded an entire album about the death of his friend and former bandmate Danny Whitten - and to a lesser extent, former roadie Bruce Berry who was fired for pawning instruments to buy heroin...told ya I’d find a way to mention the drug ;). What I’m saying is, Young is no stranger to sad songs. As to which song is his saddest, there are many contenders, but as Young’s biographer himself admits, “Interstate is Neil Young’s loneliest song.” I agree.

Young’s longtime producer David Briggs, who knew damn well that “Interstate” was a rare gem, tried to get Young to record it for 1991′s Ragged Glory, but in typical fashion, “[Young] acceded, but perversely,” eschewing the full-band format and recording a solo acoustic version instead. That particular version would eventually see limited release on the vinyl version of Young’s 1996 album Broken Arrow, a forgettable affair that was hammered by critics and disavowed by most members of Crazy Horse. You can find the solo acoustic “Interstate” on YouTube but I’m not gonna post it, simply because it is so freakin’ disappointing. 

I love the line “I can hear a soft voice calling...telling me to bring my guitar home.” In the tradition of the Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile,” "Interstate” is one of the all-time great I’m-A-Lonely-Rock-Star-On-Tour song. A more modern version of this idea can be found in Kurt Vile’s unimaginatively titled “On Tour,” a song where Young’s influence can be identified, especially in the way Vile tunes his lower strings to let them buzz, a technique pioneered by Young in the abovementioned song and most prominently in “Bandit.”

Thank God for YouTube, so that you can hear "Interstate” in all its gorgeous majesty. You can hear Young play the same guitar solo he’s been playing his whole career in minor key masterpieces like “Hey Hey My My,” “Like A Hurricane,” “Goin’ Home,” “Be The Rain.” Every time Young returns to it, you can feel the long shadow of his past, echoes of former greatness, the shambolic glory of his band bashing away at the chords, always emphasizing emotional delivery over technical proficiency. It’s a really really beautiful song, a song I treasure, and I hope you like it.

I’m also posting a rare version of “Shots.”

In “Shots,” Neil Young returns to a technique previously used on “Cortez the Killer,” where he switches from a third person omniscient voice describing trauma and violence to a first person voice describing personal emotion. In Zuma’s “Cortez the Killer,” Young spends two or three verses describing the endeavours of genocidal explorer Hernan Cortes, and also the Aztecs: people worked together/they lifted many stones/they carried them to the flatlands/they died along the way/but they built up with their bare hands what we still can’t do today/and I know she’s living there and loves me til this day. Now, that’s not Shelley, but it’s an effective and jarring switch. Young tries it again in “Shots,” and for me, the effect is even better. For whatever reason, maybe his sharp right turn when he became an outspoken Reagan supporter, or maybe because of the Iran-Contra Affair, Young’s lyrics took on a particular preoccupation with crime, border zones, and desert iconography in the 1980s, manifestations of which can be heard in “Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero Part I)” “Rockin’ In the Free World,” “On Broadway,” and “Eldorado,” all songs that ended up on Young’s last album of the 1980s, Freedom. But because of the remarkable internal consistency of Young’s discography, you can also hear such sentiments in one of his first 1980s releases: “Shots.”  Children are lost in the sand, building roads with little hands Trying to join their father's castles together again Will they make it? Hey, who knows where or when old wounds will mend?  Shots ringing all along the borders can be heard  Striking out like a venom in the sky  Cutting through the air faster than a bird in the night  But I'll never use your love, you know I'm not that kind And so if you give your heart to me I promise to you Whatever we do...that I will always be true To jump from depictions of border violence to gooey Hallmark card sentiments shouldn’t work, yet it does. The words might look silly written down, but the sheer conviction they are sung with, and the sheer power of Young’s loon-like vibrato, is what sells them, at least to my ears and heart. I’m not the first to make the loon comparison, Young’s biographer Jimmy McDonough has done so too. Young’s father Scott was the first writer to compare his son’s unique voice to the sound of the loon cry, a very Canadian sound, associated with Muskoka nights in summer, nights often soundtracked by Young’s vast and varied discography.

Disappointingly, the album version of “Shots,” which appeared on 1981′s Re-ac-tor, is pretty fuckin annoying, with its overblown machine gun affects (done by Young on the Synclavier), and Ralph Molina’s incessant marching beat. The song is already called “Shots,” Neil. You didn’t have to add machine gun sound effects. This isn’t audio verite. I’m not gonna post the album version here but you can find it easily. The album iteration has its fans though. Canadian blue-collar rockers The Constantines would cover “Shots” on a vinyl-only release with The Unintended, in which the Cons covered Neil Young and The Unintended covered Gordon Lightfoot. The Cons picked some weird songs, “Shots” among them, and you can tell they are referencing the Re-ac-tor version, not the superior one posted here. I’m not sure why Young slathered so many effects over the album version of “Shots.” The 80s definitely saw him taking his heavier music in an unpalatable direction. The Eldorado EP, in particular, has one of his most savage recordings ever, a song called “Heavy Love” where Young blows his voice out completely by the end of the song in an attempt to sing louder than the savage pulsing thrust of the band (the abovementioned Young & the Restless). The drummer on Eldorado was Chad Cromwell, not Steve Jordan who’d played with Young on his legendary SNL appearance where he played “Rockin in the Free World,” the definitive performance of that song, where Young tore all six strings from his guitar at its denouement. Unfortunately, SNL guards its content as jealously as a rabid guard dog, so I can’t post it. Maybe one day I’ll find a gif. I’ll leave you with two strong cuts from Eldorado. The first is “Heavy Love,” which is obviously a sister song to “Rockin In The Free World,” with its similar sonic texture and E minor riff. Listening is worth it just to hear Young’s voice go to pieces a la “Territorial Pissings” at the end (3:58 if you don’t wanna wait).

And this is the title track “Eldorado,” which ended up on Freedom. Young employs a fingerpicking style redolent of 80s megastars Dire Straits, and he sings of mission bells and senoritas and golden suns rising on runways and Mariachi bands while playing the A minor chord, a chord strongly associated with Mexican music and Mariachi styles. It’s a cool verite approach, one that works much better than the machine gun effects of “Shots,” especially when the gun violence Young has been hinting at the entire song finally explodes in a shower of distortion at 4:40. Have you ever heard something so loud compared to the backing track? I remember showing “Eldorado” to my friend/bandmate James, and I told him to prepare himself for how loud it is. Afterwards, James said, “even though I was ready for it, that scared the shit out of me.” It is so fucking loud. Check it out @ 4:40. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

One last point I’ll make...the Spanish-influenced guitar lick you can hear at 1:06 is really similar to the pre-chorus guitar riff Young plays on “War of Man” from Harvest Moon. I don’t consider stuff like that to be self plagiarism. I think it shows a consistency, but also it’s a way to reward fans for paying attention. Frank Zappa was known to do the same thing, re-introduce little musical nuances he’d recorded years or decades before. It’s cool. It’s what makes a discography live on long after the artist has burnt out or faded away. If you’re interested, here is a wonderful live early version of “Eldorado” titled “Road of Plenty” recorded with Crazy Horse in 1986: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6_oLYfrYk

[miraitaxi]

BUCK-TICK DIQ-2017 live report

Kyoto Rohm hall - Nov. 9th 2017 (Part 1)

First I’d like to state that I don’t consider myself a hardcore fan in the sense that I don’t care for personal lives of the artists, leaks, bootlegs or other obscure contents. Call it a different word if you may, but I think I’d call it a passionate fan - I love the artists for what they do more than their works themselves, and I am always cool with whatever road they wish to take. I think that each song that the band creates has its own life, and although the band can do the best performance of that song because they know it best, the song exists to be brought to life by anyone and everyone. Thus the band is only there to materialize what needs to be materialized, and not for analyzing the expectations of their current fans and producing music only to please them. I started thinking about this when I frequented the perfume fandom and saw how much hate there was when the new album didn’t meet their expectations. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Otsuka Ai say that she doesn’t want to go back to her previous style, and I’ve also read several reviews of people complaining that her new stuff doesn’t sound like it did before. Artists create what they believe need to be created, even if that means disappointing their previous audiences. I guess that’s what makes some artists go mainstream, which is not a bad thing at all either. It’s just that some people criticize artists for going mainstream, and others for not taking the mainstream path. This is one of the reasons I usually don’t read critics that judge bands with personal opinions, but read instead analyses of the music itself (Cayce does some great analysis at https://sites.google.com/site/lyricsyndrome/articles/reviews). And maybe that’s also one of the reasons why I myself don’t do live reports…

But the reason I had to share that rant, and the actual reason I don’t do live reports, is because I rarely remember what happens at live concerts 😂 Every time I go, the music goes directly from my ears to my follicles and I spend two hours in ecstasy and when I come to my senses I’m all sweaty with a sore throat and arms. I really feel lucky for being a person that experiences musical frisson several times almost on a daily basis. I also enjoy concerts with my eyes closed for considerable amounts of time - missing a few visual seconds of the band is nothing compared to the feeling of being bathed with the raw sound (and the screams of people, if there were any😒. Seriously, listen to e.g. Jupiter live from the Catalogue 1987-2016, disc 3 song 2 - it is CHILLING!). Plus, the last images I see before closing my eyes get burnt right into my brain and they’re the most precious memories that I get to keep. When I got this ask I had to google the playlist of the concert because all I remember was it starting with Dokudanjo beauty and finalizing with New World. So here is the playlist I found. Now that I see it I didn’t even recognize oriental love story

01.独壇場Beauty -R.I.P.- 02.ICONOCLASM 03.ANGELIC CONVERSATION 04.THE SEASIDE STORY 05.Oriental Love Story 06.スピード 07.LOVE PARADE 08.ノクターン -Rain Song- 09.サファイア 10.BABEL 11.BOY septem peccata mortalia 12.Django!!! -眩惑のジャンゴ- 13.絶界 14.Memento mori 15.COSMOS

-アンコール- 16.MACHINE -Remodel- 17.夢魔-The Nightmare 18.愛の葬列

-アンコール- 19.JUPITER 20.MY EYES & YOUR EYES 21.New World

So let’s start. As usual, the audience wasn’t very loud, compared to their early years. I mentioned this sometime before, but I don’t know if it’s because:

A) social behavior has changed - shyness, loudness not being socially acceptable, etc. (I remember seeing other artists with a much livelier audience so i don’t think that’s it)

B) only new fans are loud, and now that only long-term fans remain for BUCK-TICK, the loudness is gone (the 夢見る宇宙 tour dvd sounds amazing and it wasn’t that long ago, so I doubt this either)

C) the idol culture has spread everywhere; people go only to admire their idol and not to listen to me butcher their songs

D) the loudness hasn’t changed, they just used to hide microphones between the audience but I can’t tell because I didn’t go to the first concerts

E) it is forbidden by law

Whatever the reason it is, the band now needs to adapt to it, and I think Dokudanjo beauty was a great opening song, and if it had to be one song from a single it’d have to be either this or Glamorous in my opinion. This song has it all: music starts before the band is revealed, it’s followed by heavy snare and bass with good rhythm, and even though it has one of the easiest choruses which I hoped would have people singing along at least to this, it does have a lot of clapping which people love so at least that created good ambience.

Then we got some ICONOCLASM, but since I pretend to be able to play the bass for this (all the 3 notes!! 😏0530 3053) I was too busy getting U-ta blow his load all up in my ears to care about everyone else. I did expect Sakurai to let us say “5 for japanese babies”, but that was something that did not happen.

Then there was Angelic Conversation, which also gets the people wild like Jupiter does, but this time I did expect more heat from the fans. Also this is one of the favorite songs of the person who introduced me to BUCK-TICK so it’s a song that I enjoy on a very personal level. Since I was on the 3rd floor and most of the stage lighting was shining upwards directly on my face I had to listen to most of the songs with my eyes closed, but as I said before that’s not problem at all.

After that there was The Seaside Story. The song had the same intro as it did on the Atom Miraiha No. 9 Tour. With the playlist from that tour, the intro blended well with FUTURE SONG, but on this tour I might have missed something because I didn’t feel the same flow between songs. What I’m glad they kept was Sakurai singing the end of the second line from the first and third verses with full throttled anger (どうってことないわ ＆ でもかまわないわ）.

I’d like to skip Oriental Love Story here and instead talk about their wardrobes. Hoshino and Yu-ta were wearing standard Hoshino and Yu-ta clothes, respectively. Yagami先生 was wearing his long-tailed coat and no top-hat. I can’t recall what Imai was wearing, but his hair looked like it was on fire like in the  BABEL single and several if not all the other The Parade photos. Sakurai was wearing, and I haven’t seen other photos of it yet, thigh-high tights with a vertical fishnet strip on the front, with magenta velvet high heel short boots. They weren’t as hidden as his tights from the Atom Miraiha No. 9 tour. I just loved that there were several 12 year olds or so in the audience with their mothers, learning since young that a displaying your tights as a 50 year old male is something to take with pride and confidence.

Speed and LOVE PARADE followed. Both are great songs that are enjoyed without needing to add anything more than their studio versions. In LOVE PARADE, Sakurai stood back in the dark while the parade silhouette was projected on the wall, so it was more of a “letting us sing the lyrics” kind of song, as it was originally designed to be in my opinion.

After that they played Nocturne. Assuming you don’t download all their collection illegally (i’m watching you) without the struggle of finding out of press discs , I don’t think all the people are familiar with maxi-single songs like Nocturne. I don’t even know if they sell the singles in digital format now. The song had beautiful lighting effects, so I hope that those who weren’t familiar with the song before loved this performance enough to go get the single.

It was then that I hit my climax, when they performed Sapphire. One life, One death is one of my favorite albums but other than Baby, I want you I don’t really see other songs from the album being played live. I was just recovering from ICONOCLASM when Yu-ta dropped this on me. I never expected I would be able to experience it live. What I love from this song is that it feels like there’s a part of the lyrics reserved especially for the audience (Don’t let me down - take me to the end of life), that we can sing while Sakurai does his part. It is songs like these that really make me feel connected to the band during live concerts.

Right as I was on my second recovery from bass overload, they played BABEL (after some promotion by Sakurai). I purposely didn’t watch the BABEL PV until after I got my copy, which was to be after the concert. I let the band surprise me with a live performance, and boy did they overdid themselves. I loved the bass line for this song, which I think I have heard before somewhere on a different song but I can’t put my finger on it. (I also think Baby, I love you has a similar to rhythm to Enter Sandman by Metallica but my friends say I’m crazy…). The chorus of this song was also easy to catch up to. Before I knew it I was singing along to a song I’ve never heard before. By this time the fog inside the theater was getting really thick and I think that for the lighting to match the mood in BABEL this would be a song better played on the beginning.

Then they played BOY -septem peccata mortalia-. I still can’t pick a favorite song from Atom Miraiha No. 9, but as its live versions go this is one that I really like. I feel that for songs where they project the lyrics on the back wall, this is one where it really adds to the song (the other one I like: DADA Disco). I really wanted to see Imai play lying on the ground with his feet on the air, but this didn’t happen this time (or at least I don’t recall it).

[jafreitag]

31 Days of Dead 2019 | Day 29: Rare and Different Tunes

December 29

Rare and Different Tunes

I thought it would be fun to present a collection of songs composed by Robert Hunter that were either rarely or never performed live. Since it would take too long to write-up each of these songs, I simply listed some brief stats taken from DeadBase XI (1999) along with additional information where it seemed warranted.

Mason’s Children (12.28.69 – Miami Pop Festival, International Speedway • Hollywood, FL) – A Hunter/Garcia song about Altamont that was written and recorded for Workingman’s Dead, but left off the album. A studio outtake was included on the So Many Roads box set in 1999. Debut – 12/19/69. Last played – 2/28/70. Total performances – 18

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70 – SUNY-Stony Brook • Stony Brook, NY) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on American Beauty. Debut – 9/18/70. Last played – 12/26/70. Total performances – 5

Clementine (1.23.68 – Eagles Auditorium • Seattle, WA) – A Lesh/Hunter song written in 1968 during the recording of Anthem of the Sun, but never released. Debut – 1/20/68. Last played – 1/26/69. Total performances – 3 (does not includes 2 instrumental versions). Read more about it here: http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2009/08/clementine.html

Rosemary (12.7.68 – Bellarmine College • Louisville, KY) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on Aoxomoxoa. Debut/Last Played – 12/7/69. Total performances – 1. Read more about it here: https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-rosemary

What’s Become Of The Baby? (1969 – Aoxomoxoa Outtakes) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on Aoxomoxoa. Debut/Last Played – 4/26/69 (Dick’s Picks Vol. 26). Total performances – 1

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (1969 – Aoxomoxoa Outtakes) – Written and recorded for Aoxomoxoa, but not released and never performed live. Robert Hunter is a significant participant on the recording. It was considered for inclusion on the So Many Roads box set and as a bonus track for the Aoxomoxoa remix, but was supposedly vetoed “in no uncertain terms” by Hunter. He provided a clue as to why he may have done that during his solo acoustic performance at the Museum of History & Industry on June 11, 2003, and I hope/pray that he does not rise from the grave to haunt me for including it in this project:

“The barbed wire whipping party in the razor blade forest” – That was my addition to Aoxomoxoa but when I listened to it (I suppose you all have heard tapes of it by now) I decided it was blasphemy and I wasn’t sure I wanted to live with it for the rest of my life, so I decided it shouldn’t go on. That was when they realized I was a chicken and a coward and I couldn’t be in the band. “Here, Hunter, take a pencil, you asshole. You realize how good that is?” Hey man, I could have been the next Kurt Cobain. ‘The other day I went to Mars and talked to God. And he told me to tell you to hang tight and not worry. The solution to everything is death.’ I mean, would you want that on your conscience for the flower-power generation, man? No, no. I mean, it’s true in its own way, but … well the part about going to Mars is true, the rest of it’s not.

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73 – William & Mary College Hall • Williamsburg, VA) – The only Hunter/Godchaux collaboration and the only song where Keith sings the lead vocals. Appears on Wake of the Flood. Debut – 9/8/73. Last played – 9/21/73. Total performances – 6

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal) – “France” is the second track on the Dead’s 1978 studio album, Shakedown Street. It has the great distinction of topping Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 22 Terrible Songs by Great Artists. The review is priceless: “Jerry Garcia’s Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar can’t rescue this yacht-rock tune.” Bob Weir’s comments are equally as good: “This may be the worst song the Grateful Dead ever recorded….I didn’t actually write that one – it just sort of happened. But it sure as hell didn’t happen right.” The rest of the band must have agreed because the song was never performed live. Robert Hunter wrote the song’s lyrics, while Mickey Hart wrote the music, with Weir wrapping up the final arrangement. The original conception of the song was very different from the final product. In the book Box of Rain, Hunter says: ” ‘France’ was written to tapes of a joyous afternoon Latin jam at Mickey Hart’s ranch. It originally contained 13 verses(!), which were eventually paired down to 4 when the Dead recorded the song. Can I make a confession? I like it. Flame away!

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre • Morrison, CO) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on Shakedown Street. Debut – 8/30/78. Last played – 11/20/78. Total performances – 3

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88 – Greek Theatre, University of California • Berkeley, CA) – A song that was written and recorded for Built To Last but never released until a studio outtake was included on the So Many Roads box set in 1999. Debut – 6/23/88. Last played – 3/22/90. Total performances – 7

MediaFire: 

Mason’s Children (12.28.69) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/edbwxmqdqrmxhmc/71_Mason%2527s_Children_%252812.28.69_-_Miami_Pop_Festival%252C_International_Speedway_%25E2%2580%25A2_Hollywood%252C_FL%2529.mp3/file

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/zrtl3kpxsn2eq6b/72_Till_The_Morning_Comes_%252810.31.70_-_SUNY-Stony_Brook_%25E2%2580%25A2_Stony_Brook%252C_NY%2529.mp3/file

Clementine (1.23.68) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/sevp4r3nipmh5xi/73_Clementine_%25281.23.68_-_Eagles_Auditorium_%25E2%2580%25A2_Seattle%252C_WA%2529.mp3/file

Rosemary (12.7.68) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/h49i1hpr9rsy7n1/74_Rosemary_%252812.7.68_-_Bellarmine_College_%25E2%2580%25A2_Louisville%252C_KY%2529.mp3/file

What’s Become Of The Baby? (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– http://www.mediafire.com/file/ozorext3oaxy106/75_What%2527s_Become_Of_The_Baby__%25281969_-_Aoxomoxoa_Outtakes%2529.mp3/file

Hunter’s Stage Banter about The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (6.11.03) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/44icul9i4626s60/76_Hunter%2527s_Stage_Banter_about_The_Barbed_Wire_Whipping_Party_%2528Robert_Hunter_Solo_Acoustic_-_6.11.03_%25E2%2580%25A2_Museum_of_History_%2526_Industry%2529.mp3/file

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– http://www.mediafire.com/file/94ogs34qdpscxhd/77_The_Barbed_Wire_Whipping_Party_%25281969_-_Aoxomoxoa_Outtakes%2529.mp3/file

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/a6z1m2pfjq177ov/78_Let_Me_Sing_Your_Blues_Away_%25289.11.73_-_William_%2526_Mary_College_Hall_%25E2%2580%25A2_Williamsburg%252C_VA%2529.mp3/file

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal)– http://www.mediafire.com/file/taup2wow6s8natz/79_France_%25281.8.78_-_Shakedown_Street_Rehearsal%2529.mp3/file

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/z32zrcmjxm3mwmw/80_If_I_Had_The_World_To_Give_%25288.30.78_-_Red_Rocks_Amphitheatre_%25E2%2580%25A2_Morrison%252C_CO%2529.mp3/file

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/olzsm3abuq9cqmc/81_Believe_It_Or_Not_%25287.17.88_-_Greek_Theatre%252C_University_of_California_%25E2%2580%25A2_Berkeley%252C_CA%2529.mp3/file 

Live Music Archive:

Mason’s Children (12.28.69) – https://archive.org/details/gd1969-12-28.sbd.gmb.96578.flac16

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70) – http://archive.org/details/gd1970-10-31.122042.sbd.deluca.Digitalrbb.miller.flac1648

Clementine (1.23.68) – https://archive.org/details/gd1968-01-23.sbd.miller.97343.sbeok.flac16

Rosemary (12.7.68) – https://archive.org/details/gd1968-12-07.sbd.miller.88674.sbeok.flac16

What’s Become Of The Baby? (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– https://archive.org/details/gd69-xx-xx.sbd.dodd.16760.sbeok.shnf

Hunter’s Stage Banter about The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (6.11.03) – https://archive.org/details/rh2003-06-11.sbd.126772/rh03-06-11d1t05.shn

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– https://archive.org/details/gd69-xx-xx.sbd.dodd.16760.sbeok.shnf

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73) – https://archive.org/details/gd1973-09-11.113051.sbd.GoodBear.flac16

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal)– https://archive.org/details/gd78-08-XX.sbd.wiley.11692.sbeok.shnf

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78) – https://archive.org/details/gd1978-08-30.s2.sbd.miller.110151.flac16/gd78-08-30d3t02.flac

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88) – https://archive.org/details/gd1988-07-17.sbd.miller.87752.sbeok.flac16

Relisten:

Mason’s Children (12.28.69) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/12/28/masons-children?source=88157

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/10/31/till-the-morning-comes?source=88605

Clementine (1.23.68) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/01/23/clementine?source=87899

Rosemary (12.7.68) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/12/07/rosemary?source=87778

What’s Become Of The Baby? (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– N/A

Hunter’s Stage Banter about The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (6.11.03) – https://relisten.net/robert-hunter/2003/06/11/whats-become-of-the-baby-outtake-stage-chatter-shady-grove?source=193396

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (Aoxomoxoa Outtake) – N/A

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1973/09/11/let-me-sing-your-blues-away?source=90229

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal) – N/A

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1978/08/30/if-i-had-the-world-to-give?source=91305

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1988/07/17/19-believe-it-or-not?source=124330

#rareanddifferenttunes #masonschildren #12281969 #tilthemorningcomes #10311970 #celemtine #01231968 #rosemary #12071968 #whatsbecomeofthebaby #barbedwirewhippingparty #aoxomoxoaouttakes #letmesingyourbluesaway #09111973 #france #studiorehearsal #ifihadtheworldtogive #08301978 #believeitornot #07171988 #gratefuldead #roberthunter #jerrygarcia #bobweir #phillesh #billkreutzmann #mickeyhart #pigpen #tomconstanten #keithgodchaux #donnagodchaux #brentmydland #brucehornsby #vincewelnick #31daysofdead #linernotesmusicblog

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[earlybeck]

“I had my own bed. I slept in it alone, except for those times when we needed—not sex—but sex was how we got there.”

“I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself.”

“there’s so much I can’t read because I get so exasperated. Someone starts describing the character boarding the plane and pulling the seat back. and I just want to say, Babe, I have been downtown. I have been up in a plane. Give me some credit.”

The worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss--you have gone and lost something else.

Amy Hempel

Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater.”

Amy Hempel, The Dog of the Marriage: Stories  

“if it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.”

then the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently picking ticks engorged like grapes off the sleeping dogs. and when the men kissed the women good night, and their weekend whiskers scratched the women's cheeks, the women did not think shave, they thought stay.

“I had my own bed. I slept in it alone, except for those times when we needed—not sex—but sex was how we got there.”

“before I took to the road, a friend tried to get me to go to a department store with him. he said it was to improve the place where I lived. he said," I want to know you are reading beneath this lamp. " this fellow was dying. he knew it and I did not. I think he was tucking me in. he was making sure all of his friends had the right lamps, the comfiest pillows, the softest sheets. he was tucking us all in for the night.”

“What I think," Chatty says, "is that if a man loves a woman more than a woman loves a man, then they're even.”

“And I see that not touching for so long was a drive to the beach with the windows rolled up so the waves feel that much colder.”

“I read about a famous mystery writer who worked for one week in a department store. One day she saw a woman come in and buy a doll. the mystery writer found out the woman’s name, and took a bus to New Jersey to see where the woman lived. that was all. Years later, she referred to this woman as the love of her life. It is possible to imagine a person so entirely that the image resists attempts to dislodge it.”

Amy Hempel, The Collected Stories

“I would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark where hundreds of lightning bugs blink this code in sequence: right here, nowhere else ! Right now, never again !”

“I have written letters that are failures, but I have written few, I think, that are lies. trying to reach a person means asking the same question over and over again: Is this the truth, or not ? I begin this letter to you, then, in the western tradition. If I understand it, the western tradition is: Put your cards on the table.”

Amy Hempel, Tumble Home: A Novella and Short Stories

06.21.26.04 am | blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat. the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way. - missing you and no.2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. ** i miss talking with you.

06.21.26.04 am | blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat. the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way. - missing you and no.2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. ** i miss talking with you.

clip upload : 15.48.21.18 pm **in memories to both - witty, piquant, minded and exquisite women in my life. ** ok. take care. miss u. on 15.11.2009 | **yes on t way - message on 01.12.12 ** at **** ***** .. taking u turn. message on 10.11.2012.

can’t sleep There is no sleep coming I’m just lying here thinking about you I’m in deep Falling deep into the picture in my mind of everything we’re going to do Over at the lake and down by the river You can feel it start to rise Want to jump in my car, go wherever you are Because I need you by my side [Chorus] It’s going to be a long, hot summer, we should be together With your feet up on the dashboard now Singing along with the radio, it’s such a beautiful sound

And when you say my name in the middle of the day, I swear I see the stars come out When you hold my hand in the back of my mind, just waiting for the sun to go down The sun to go down

read lyrics here

06.21.26.04 am | blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat. the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way. - missing you and no.2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. ** i miss talking with you.

clip upload : 15.49.22.18 pm **in memories to both - witty, piquant, minded and exquisite women in my life. ** ok. take care. miss u. on 15.11.2009 | **yes on t way - message on 01.12.12 ** at **** ***** .. taking u turn. message on 10.11.2012.

And all I am is a man I want the world in my hands I hate the beach but I stand In California with my toes in the sand Use the sleeves of my sweater Let's have an adventure Head in the clouds but my gravity's centered Touch my neck and I'll touch yours You in those little high waisted shorts, oh [Pre-Chorus] She knows what I think about And what I think about One love, two mouths One love, one house No shirt, no blouse Just us, you find out Nothing that I wouldn’t wanna tell you about, no

read lyrics here

06.21.26.04 am | blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat. the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way. - missing you and no.2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. ** i miss talking with you.

clip upload : 18.07.21.18 pm **in memories to both - witty, piquant, minded and exquisite women in my life. ** ok. take care. miss u. on 15.11.2009 | **yes on t way - message on 01.12.12 ** at **** ***** .. taking u turn. message on 10.11.2012.

06.21.26.04 am | blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat. the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way. - missing you and no.2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. ** i miss talking with you.

clip upload : 18.11.26.18 pm **in memories to both - witty, piquant, minded and exquisite women in my life. ** ok. take care. miss u. on 15.11.2009 | **yes on t way - message on 01.12.12 ** at **** ***** .. taking u turn. message on 10.11.2012.

She was brought into this world Out of a beautiful mistake When her mom was just a girl And her daddy didn't stay [Verse 2] She was working at age 9 At the flower shop in town Working not just to survive 'Cause life was throwing her around

She was young but not naive Always wise beyond her years Hoping that no one would see Every time she dried her tears [Chorus] In the rose garden Where the rain is falling And the thorns are sharpened Rose garden, yeah, rose

read lyrics here

06.21.26.04 am | blame it on the sun or the blazing desert heat. the most disciplined of women and the most reckless of men are about to clash in the most impossibly irresistible way. - missing you and no.2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. ** i miss talking with you.

clip upload : 18.18.21.18 pm **in memories to both - witty, piquant, minded and exquisite women in my life. ** ok. take care. miss u. on 15.11.2009 | **yes on t way - message on 01.12.12 ** at **** ***** .. taking u turn. message on 10.11.2012

How was I to know you'd just come along? (And funk my life up) Lips like they've been singing sexed up strawberry songs (Just funk my life up) Never heard her coming, thought it's just another woman With a shotgun in her hand (Funk my life up) She's the bass, she's the beat, she's the rhythm, she's the band (Just funk my life up) And the girl, so fine makes you wanna scream hallelujah

Sly hands, spinning webs like silk Beats are dripping on me like spider milk And I never heard the warning when I woke up in the morning With my sunshine on a drip She's my rock, she's my bud, she's tequila, she's a trip And that girl, so fine Makes you wanna scream hallelujah

read lyrics here

06.21.26.04 am | a happy new day wishes - I want morning and noon and nightfall with you. I want your tears, your smiles, your kisses. missing you and no. 2 virtually matter till we meet again - for us being in love. one love, one heart, one destiny.

You - m i S S

#3618

to them - listen adequate music : c - d - s - k - k - a

post time : 06.21.18.14 pm

VW - NS - us being in fervent love.

pic : www.chuvakhin.com

the greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively. - Bob Marley

[sorrelchestnut]

Cry Havoc, 9 and 13 from the ask meme

For the fanfic author askmeme, still taking questions if anyone wants to play!

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Oh, always, man.  Anything that I spend enough time on to make it to the internet always has at least one or two versions that get cast aside.  Though I’ll admit, for this fic less than most.  Some scenes or chapter branches get discarded halfway through, but for the most part I had a surprisingly clear vision of my main characters and how I wanted their relationship to develop.

Most of my versioning for this ‘verse came from stuff happening after the end of the main story.  I tend to get distracted easily and was working on sequels before I actually finished the original, and I couldn’t quite mentally pin down how I wanted it to go.  And on some level that’s just pure distraction, but on another it’s important: where the characters go from the end matters in where and how I want to make the end, so it’s nice to have it squared away in my head.  I’ve written a couple different half-done versions of her confrontation with Kellogg, for example.  Sole and Kellogg have more in common than they don’t, in a lot of ways, but how much of that do they see in each other?  How does that unfold?  Ultimately I think I came down on the side of a kind of detached annoyance: Sole doesn’t feel enough towards him to hate him, because he’s just an obstacle, a bump in the road on the way to her real goal.  That being said, I always wanted a version of the memory quest where Sole basically argues with his running narration through the entire thing until they have a more real conversation at the end, but that one never even made it out of my head and onto paper.

Branching off the same theme, I also had this half-hearted AU where she somehow made it out of the cryopod during Kellogg’s first attack, takes her kid and GTFO, and it’s her and Kellogg through the decades, sometimes on the same side and sometimes not, because MacCready might be her complementary match but Kellogg is the most like her.  I just thought it’d be interesting to see a ruthless, amoral human terminator of a mercenary squaring up against... well, Kellogg.  I always thought it was a shame Kellogg had to go so earlier into the narrative, because he was definitely the best antagonist of the piece.

(However I end up writing or not writing that questline, one thing’s for sure: she carries that pistol of his strapped to her hip for the rest of her life, and if you asked her she probably couldn’t even tell you why.)

Oh!  I was also for a while exploring a Deacon-centric poly sequel, but I could never quite make it gel.  At some point I’ll post the Deacon-POV bit that I ended up writing instead, because I never really got to get into his ruthlessness in writing everybody wants to be a cat, and I wanted a chance to explore the end-justify-the-means side of spying for a good cause.  I think right around the time the earlier version stopped working for me was when I started taking X6-88 with me a bunch on my current playthrough, and that’s not a coincidence.  The reflexively dishonest long-term pining from the Deacon-centric sequel didn’t really quite fit with Sole and Mac’s easy and bloody partnership, but X6 and his sneaky sarcasm and vaguely disdainful ruthless competence and uncomplicated loyalty snapped into place like a missing cog.

I’m actually prepping some stuff this month to post a sort of “WIP Amnesty” month this August, so hopefully I’ll get some of this stuff out then.  I could probably post some of the discarded versions here on tumblr if there’s any interest.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Oh hell yes, anything that gets longer than a few thousand words almost always has its own soundtrack, one way or another.  (Except Kin and Country, for some reason.  Never quite developed its own musical identity.)  It’s usually in flux, and I don’t have a proper playlist put together on spotify or anything yet, but if anyone’s interested the track listing for Cry Havoc is:

01. “Blood on My Name” - The Brothers Bright02. “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club03. “Fire” - Barns Courtney04. “The Wave” - Miike Snow05. "God’s Away On Business” - Tom Waits06. “Radioactive” - Imagine Dragons07. “Glitter and Gold” - Barns Courtney08. “Arsonist’s Lullaby” - Hozier09. “Devil Town” - The Builders and the Butchers10. “Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” - Arctic Monkeys11. “Devil's Teeth” - Muddy Magnolias12. “Down to the River” - Brown Bird13. “Deja Vu” - Something for Kate14. “Red Right Hand” - Arctic Monkeys15. “I Followed Fires” - Matthew & the Atlas16. “You Could Be My Baby” - SHEL17. “Pyromaniac” - Oh Land18. “Pretty Baby” - Brandan Benson19. “Raise Hell” - Dorothy20. “Feelin’ Good” - Nina Simone

All of my soundtracks are always 20 songs long, no more, no less.  No idea why I picked that particular arbitrary number to be the cutoff, but there you go.

[humndrum-blog]

    tag dump, pt. 1

[medleymisty]

Playlist meme

I was tagged by @mysimsloveaffair, who, as anyone who tags me in a music meme does, has now earned my undying love.

I had a Simself in Sims 3 but I never did anything but take a few awkward pics with her and it doesn’t feel right to do this for Seth, because he doesn’t think about music this way. So this is just for me with no pic of my simself to soften the blow! ;)

Also if anyone sees this and wants to do it, consider yourself tagged. :)

01. a song that makes you want to fall in love // 02. your favorite pump up song // 03. your favorite song to rock out to // 04. a song that reminds you of summer // 05. your favorite cover of a song // 06. a song you sing in the shower // 07. a song that reminds you of someone // 08. what you want your wedding song to be // 09. your favorite 90s/ 2000s song // 10. a song to heal a heartbreak // 11. a song that makes you feel relaxed // 12. a song you know all the lyrics to // 13. your favorite oldies rock song // 14. a song by your favorite artist genre // 15. a song that you like to fall asleep to // 16. a song that makes you feel invincible // 17. favorite song from a musical // 18. a song that makes you cry // 19. a song that is from a genre of music you don’t usually listen to // 20. a song that reminds you of yourself

1. Well, I have been in that emotional state for nearly half my life already. Here is the song that the spousal person once said was something like “our song”.

The Temptation of Adam - Josh Ritter

2.  The second verse of this song always gets me ready to write.

Jump Around - House of Pain

3. Hmmm. Gonna go with this song which I think is one of the most awesome rock songs ever.

Banditos - The Refreshments

4. Might be trite to go with a song specifically about summer, but oh well.

Summer in the City - Lovin’ Spoonful

5. Marilyn Manson is awesome at covers, and I love pretty much every one he’s done. But if I had to pick a favorite, maybe...

Sweet Dreams - Marilyn Manson

6. When I lived at home sometimes I’d take my CD player into the bathroom and play it, and I have actually sung this song in the shower before.

Rosa Parks - OutKast

7. That one is hard. Hmmm. Okay, this is not at all a pleasant memory, but it’s the best answer I got.

Fighter - Christina Aguilera

8. We got married in a drive-thru chapel in Pigeon Forge. Which may have gotten burned down in the fire there, sigh. But I guess the spousal person likes this song.

Nights in White Satin - The Moody Blues

9. LOLOLOLOLOL. You’re gonna ask me that? How can I narrow down all the songs I loved as a teenager to just one? Well, all right, here you go.

Soul to Squeeze - Red Hot Chili Peppers

10. Hmmm. What breaks my heart is human evil and oppression and injustice and authoritarianism. So here you go!

Marchin’ On - One Republic

11. Who would want to feel relaxed? But let’s go with this:

Morning Blues - Papercut

12. Most of the ones I listen to. But let’s go with this one. The video has the lyrics so you can learn them too! ;)

Barbra Streisand - Duck Sauce

13. I spent middle school listening to the oldies station. So here you go!

You Can’t Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones

14. That’s hard. I don’t know what my favorite genre is. But based on sheer volume of presence on my playlists, I guess 90s alternative rock. So...

Vasoline - Stone Temple Pilots 

15. This is like that relaxation question. Sleep is for the weak! So, with that in mind:

Death is the Road to Awe - Clint Mansell

16. This is one I just found the other week! I love it lots. It is very invincible-y.

Jungle Remix -  X Ambassadors & Jamie N Commons ft. Jay Z

17. I’m not really into musicals. Wait, movies count, right?

Jai Ho dance scene from Slumdog Millionaire

18. Well, with recent events, when I watched this video the other day I sobbed like a very broken thing.

Immigraniada - Gogol Bordello

19. Errr, there’s not many genres I won’t listen to. I grew up listening to country but it died with the Telecommunications Act in the 90s and I stopped. Although in recent years I’ve found good new country on the internet from smaller labels. So big name popular played on the radio country is not a genre I currently listen to. But this song is okay.

Biscuits - Kacey Musgrove

20. Gonna go with my current repeat one, because there’s a reason why I have been listening to it over and over the last few days.

The Outsider - Ben Miller Band