#may erlewine

[bijouxcarys]

Queen's Hot Space Era: A Deep Dive

Masterlist

I’ve been thinking over this album and era more than usual lately, and decided that I’d write this up. Perhaps as a way to extricate all the Queen knowledge from my head, and the era in question takes up quite a lot of RAM.

The Hot Space album, and era, is very controversial and to this day garners a polarising set of opinions amongst fans and critics alike. So I just thought what the hell, let’s let everyone know what the hell was going on with Queen in the early 80s.

The Hot Space album was the 10th studio album by Queen and was released on the 21st May 1982. It had elements of disco, funk, R&B, dance, and pop, which was very different to what Queen had been doing throughout previous albums. The dance elements of this album was supposedly inspired by the success of Another One Bites The Dust, released in 1980.

Another One Bites The Dust was extremely successful in the US and the UK, the two largest marketing countries in the Western world, at least at the time—and Queen aimed to prolong that success.

The band started recording for Hot Space in June of 1981, and spent a gruelling 10 months on the project before wrapping up the production element in March of 1982. Upon its release, fans and critics found it disappointing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said “the band that once proudly proclaimed not to use synthesisers on their albums now dramatically reversed course, dedicating the entire first side of the album to robotic, new wave dance pop, all driven by drum machines and coloured by keyboards with Brian May’s guitar coming in as flavour only on occasion.”

The fourth track on Hot Space, Body Language, has been dubbed the worst song in Queen’s discography by fans, and the whole album received no more than a 3-star rating overall.

Rolling Stone gave them a 3-star, whilst the Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave a 1-star… Yikes.

Hot Space is one of the more obscure Queen albums to those who are not currently, or have ever been, active within the fandom. So we’re going to break it down a little bit, and let’s just talk about the background and context of what the hell was going on with them.

So in 1981, Queen recorded Under Pressure with David Bowie, and it’s still considered one of Queen’s staple and most popular songs. It was recorded in Montreux, and was a completely separate project to Hot Space. The band had met up with Bowie and jammed together for a while, just to see if they could come up with something to lay down and master. Of course, as most people know, bassist John Deacon came up with the iconic Under Pressure bass riff, just before they all went out to get some pizza. And by the time they’d returned to the studio, he’d forgotten it! But luckily drummer Roger Taylor remembered it.

Now, this was the first time Queen weren’t working alone; they were used to working only with their producers, never having had anyone else’s input. The two artists merged as one for the song and it pointed in the direction of a potential new road for Queen—it was looking like an exciting one.

But what went wrong during the recording of Hot Space?

Brian May recalls that there was a total change of life for all of them. They travelled to Munich and according to Brian, that’s when things started to go downhill.

Let’s talk a little bit about the studio in which they recorded the album in Munich. It was situated in the basement of a hotel, and it was called Musicland Studios. It closed in the 90s due to some road issues, so it’s no longer open. But Brian remembers this place being grim and depressing.

The band’s mental health started to deteriorate after learning some unsettling details about the place. In Brian’s words:

“A lot of people used to jump off the top of the building and kill themselves off that particular building. We didn’t know that until we got there.”

The urge to finish recording grew, and they spent months at the hotel.

The aim was to create an album that focused more on the dance elements of music due to the success of Another One Bites The Dust, as I mentioned before. They seemed to be in luck, as Freddie Mercury’s entourage at the time was concentrated with dance influences in the form of Paul Prenter.

Now, who was Paul Prenter, you ask? If you’ve seen the film, you’ll kind of already know, but here’s a bit more of an in-depth look at him.

Paul Prenter was Freddie Mercury’s personal manager from 1977 to 1986. Despite their professional relationship, the two also engaged in intimate relations, and Prenter had a huge influence over Freddie’s life during the time he worked for him. He held partial responsibility for Freddie’s excessive involvement in drugs, alcohol, and his growing promiscuity. 

Freddie was known to have fired Prenter in 1986, and shortly after it was plastered all over the news. It turns out Paul Prenter had sold personal stories to the press about Freddie… What a dick.

After receiving money from multiple press outlets, he moved back to his hometown of Belfast and spent it all—smart. He then asked Freddie for more money! After all that, he went back and asked him for money! But it’s okay, he did succumb to complications from AIDS a few months before Freddie. So… Freddie got the last laugh, it seemed.

You’re probably wondering what Paul Prenter had to do with Hot Space. After all, he wasn’t part of the band, right?

Well, Freddie’s life was ruled by the New York-inspired gay lifestyle of the 80s, particularly engaging in extreme partying and extreme promiscuity. And at the time, Freddie had suggested to the band that the music on their new album should sound like that of which they’d play in a gay bar, but those words had initially come from Paul Prenter.

It’s said that Prenter despised guitars and relentlessly referred to Brian May as old-fashioned. Roger Taylor recalled that Prenter was a “very bad influence” on the band:

“He was a very, very bad influence upon Freddie, and hence on the band. He very much wanted our music to sound like you just walked in a gay club, and I didn’t.”

The strain and tension became inevitable with the four personalities—and we all know that John, Freddie, Brian, and Roger have massive personalities. Whilst they had always experienced bickering, as most bands do, they now with the added tension, the production of the album isn’t going to go as smoothly.

“Arguments would start off as creative, but slowly became personal.”

Brian recalls that less and less time was spent in the studio and more time was spent arguing.

To put it into perspective about what life was like for the 10 months they spent recording Hot Space in Munich…A regular day recording this album went a little bit like the following:

The entourage recall waking up at 3am, working for hours, having dinner, and then roadies would mix up cocktails and other things would pursue. The band got mixed up in cocaine and various other drugs. Random women, and relentless drinking, and as any sane person will tell you, that is not a good thing.

Roger described it as an exhausting cycle day after day. Imagine doing that for 9 whole months.

Brian remembers them getting into “deep trouble emotionally” in Munich, which possibly explains why their mental states deteriorated.

Now, the Hot Space era didn’t just end when the album came out. Obviously, when an album comes out, you have to do interviews to promote your album and after months and months of bad influences and arguments, the band’s relationship had kind of broken down. Things continued in quite a tense fashion. 

In fact, Freddie was left very unhappy and depressed after Hot Space wrapped up—it lasted a while, and he was completely immersed in places and habits that remained detrimental to his fate. Freddie became passive during interviews and defensive on certain questions concerning anything but current projects.

His attitude during the 1982 press conference in Europe was already standoffish and it was extremely obvious that he didn’t want to be there. The body language of the others, especially Brian, speaks volumes. The mood is low and they all seem exhausted.

Another nationwide interview the band gave in promotion for the album presented the group separated; Freddie was notably disinterested as the others spoke. There was even a moment where Freddie responds to the interviewer’s question with “let’s break up tomorrow” as a joke. But, watching it, you can’t help but feel there’s some truth to his words. Nobody laughed, even Roger looked uncomfortable by it!

One of the more well-known interviews from this era was with Brian and Roger, which displayed multiple moments of awkwardness with them both trying to make jokes and seem like they’re happy with what they’d produced, making up amateur excuses as to why they created something with a different sound. In my opinion, they just didn’t seem very happy. Do we even need to mention the “shut up” from Roger, and then the succeeding comment from Brian about Mack having the best drum sound?

Then, we have the iconic 1984 Freddie interview, where he left viewers stunned with his answers:

“I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you,” “I’m not an artist, I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”

The long-term effects of what happened behind the scenes of Hot Space were everlasting and turned the group into four completely different people than they were prior to 1982. 

As I’ve already mentioned, Hot Space wasn’t received well upon its release, and there are still very strong opinions about it today. Brian stated in 2014 that it isn’t the band’s worst album, but the timing of its release was just wrong. As time goes on, more people begin to accept the Hot Space album as just another reason why Queen is one of the most versatile groups of all time, with them branching out into very different styles to what they’d done earlier in their career, like Sheer Heart Attack, News Of The World, etc…

80s culture looked down upon disco and funk, so reception for Hot Space was bound to be less than amazing. However, today, all styles of music are simultaneously celebrated, and people enjoy the album more now than they did 40 years ago.

So in conclusion, recording Hot Space was a difficult period for Queen. It’s horrible to think about your idols going through the kind of thing they did in the early-mid 80s, influenced by not very nice people. But focusing on the album itself, it’s truly not a bad album at all. Granted, the timing of the release wasn’t the best for Queen, but it holds up as a fan favourite today.

If you haven’t heard any of the songs from Hot Space, besides Under Pressure, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s very different to what Queen usually did and I think it’s worth a listen.

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Let me know if you liked this little… post, whatever the hell it is, and if I should do more posts like this. I enjoy throwing all my useless knowledge onto a page lol.

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: Backstreet Boys Millennium

Celebrating its 25th anniversary today, Millennium has no pretense of being anything other than an album for the moment, delivering more of everything that made Backstreet's Back a blockbuster. There's a familiar blend of ballads and dance-pop, a similar shiny production, a reliance on the Boys' charisma that brings to mind the debut. If Millennium were anything other than big, glossy mainstream pop, such calculation may be a little unseemly, but in this context, it can be rather fun.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine

[projazznet]

Donald Byrd – Street Lady

Street Lady is an album by American trumpeter Donald Byrd released on the Blue Note label in July 1973.

“While that may not be ideal for jazz purists, it’s perfect for kitsch and funk fanatics” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine/AllMusic.

[sparrow-eats-kats]

what five songs is Sparrow taking to a desert island?

This was kinda hard to answer cause my character playlists aren’t really songs I think they’d listen to but songs that remind me of them, but here goes:

1. Punk Tactics by Joey Valence & Brave

2. Champion by Fall Out Boy

3. My Axe by Insane Clown Posse

4. Snow by Ricky Montgomery

5. Never One Thing by May Erlewine

Honorable mentions:

Killer in the Mirror by Set It Off

I’m Gonna Win by Rob Cantor

guillotine dreams by KiNG MALA

Allies or Enemies by The Crane Wives

[sweetdreamsjeff]

An introduction to Jeff Buckley: "I would listen to anything: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Judy Garland, Robert Johnson, Thelonious Monk, Bartk, Mahler. And I asked a lot of questions".

By��Neil Crossley published October 17, 2023

From his soaring, unbridled falsetto to his sonic artistry, Jeff Buckley defied conventions and left a catalogue of songs that is timeless and unique

On the night of 29 May, 1997, six weeks shy of his 31st birthday, Jeff Buckley waded fully clothed into a channel of the Mississippi River in Memphis. He was carefully watched from the bank by his roadie, who had warned him repeatedly about the perilous currents. The roadie looked away momentarily to remove a boombox from the water's edge and when he looked back, Buckley had disappeared. Six days later, on 4 June, Buckley's body was discovered floating near the city's famed Beale Street area, by a passenger on a riverboat called the American Queen.

In the days and weeks that followed, all manner of theories were put forward. Had Buckley ignored his roadie's warnings and been drunk or stoned when he went into the water? Had the intense pressure of producing a second album as sublime as his first simply been too much? The coroner concluded it was accidental drowning but the theories continued. Whatever the truth, it was a tragic end for an artist who clearly had a great deal left to give.

Jeffrey Scott Buckley was born in Orange County, California in 1966 and was the result of a short-lived relationship between cult folk singer-songwriter Tim Buckley and Mary Gulbert. From the age of four, Jeff was raised by Gulbert and his stepfather, Ron Moorhead.

"My mum would play piano and cello all the time and my stepdad had great musical taste," recalled Buckley. "I would listen to anything: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Judy Garland, Robert Johnson, Thelonious Monk, Bartk, Mahler. And I asked a lot of questions. Learning about music seemed effortless. I guess I must have had natural abilities. Looking back, it felt like instinct."

At five he picked up his grandmother's guitar and learnt to play it. By 13, he wrote his first song about a break-up with a girl. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Los Angeles Musicians' Institute and played in various rock and reggae bands, including a stint with dancehall reggae artist Shinehead. In 1990, he moved to New York and formed the band Gods And Monsters, a hip yet short-lived outfit.

Buckley began a solo career as a singer-songwriter, playing a borrowed Telecaster, in clubs and coffee houses in New York's East Village and building up a considerable following among audiences, critics and fellow musicians.

He was snapped up by Columbia Records and released the Live At Sin-é EP in November 1993. The EP was well received but the response was nothing compared to the rave reviews bestowed on his full-length debut album Grace, released in 1994. Unlike the EP, Buckley recorded the album with a full band, and collaborated on writing with guitarists Gary Lucas and Michael Tighe, which gave his sound fresh dynamics and textures.

It was a bold and stunning record, full of sweeping choruses and powerful arrangements. Buckley's brand of eclectic folk was distinctive and unique. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote in a review for AllMusic, "Grace sounds like a Led Zeppelin album written by an ambitious folkie with a fondness for lounge jazz".

In 1998, a collection of unreleased recordings called Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, was released posthumously. Two live albums appeared in 2000 and 2001, and other compilations and live albums were released.

As always when artists die young, speculation is rife about what might have been - the stellar works they may well have gone on to create. But in his short life, Jeff Buckley forged a collection of songs that enshrined him as an astonishingly innovative and unique talent.

1. Grace - Grace (1994)

There's an unbridled feel to this title track, which sets the tone for the album with its soaring vocals, intricate guitar patterns and strident, cathartic feel. At its heart, the song is a celebration of life and Buckley's vocals are emotive and intense as he conveys a sense of wonder for the beauty of the natural world. "There's the moon asking to stay / Long enough for the clouds to fly me away / Oh, it's my time coming / I'm not afraid / Afraid to die".

Vocally and instrumentally, it's reminiscent of Radiohead, which is no great surprise as Buckley was an inspiration for Thom Yorke. As Yorke's friend Dougie Payne of Travis told Far Out magazine: "When [Radiohead] were recording Fake Plastic Trees, they were having trouble with it, and they couldn't get it to work. So, they went out to see Jeff Buckley play on the tour when it was just him and his electric guitar."

The band were bowled over by Buckley's performance. "Radiohead went back to the studio and Thom completely changed the way that he was singing and used that falsetto. You can kind of see the comparisons now. And that says a lot for how inspiring the show was."

Much of the track's strength comes from the live performance in the studio. This is a band at the top of its game, honed by relentless touring and capable of taking the music to real heights. This tight unit includes the formidable talents of co-writer Gary Lucas [a guitarist from Captain Beefheart's band whose instrumental Rise Up To Be formed the basis for Grace], Danish-American bassist Mick Grondahl and drummer Matt Johnson. By the end of the track, Buckley is screaming out the high notes as the whole sonic bombast builds towards a resolution.

2. Lover You Should've Come Over - Grace (1994)

The pain and longing of unrequited love is the focus of this hauntingly beautiful ballad written with Gary Lucas, which is built around Buckley's intricate fingerpicking. There's a dreamy, melancholic feel to the track, which features a sublime string arrangement from Karl Hans Berger.

Buckley's performance here is raw and intimate and the song really showcases the emotive feel of his vocals. It has become one of his most enduring and beloved compositions.

"It's never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder / It's never over, all my riches for her smiles when I slept so soft against her / It's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter / It's never over, she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever."

The song runs to almost seven minutes, but it's so entrancing that you barely notice. Every syllable from Buckley sounds heartfelt and true. As ever, the chords and melodies veer to the unexpected. From the mournful organ in the intro through to the squalling jagged guitar and drum flams at the outro, this is perfection.

3. Last Goodbye - Grace (1994)

The second single from the album, after the title track, and a haunting ballad that became a belated hit in 1995. Here, Buckley mourns the death of a relationship and focuses on the pain of letting go. The chorus is soaring and anthemic, while tasteful piano and string parts add depth and texture to the song.

Even from his early solo coffee house gigs, Buckley chose to play an electric rather than an acoustic, a decision that added to his distinctively different style. Buckley mainly played a borrowed 1983 Fender Telecaster and a Rickenbacker 360/12, but also used several other guitars, including a black Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1967 Guild F-50 acoustic. When on tour with his band, he used Fender amps for a clean sound and Mesa Boogie amps for overdriven tones.

4. Mojo Pin - Grace (1994)

Another song written with Gary Lucas (his instrumental is called And You Will) and dating back to the Live at Sin-é EP, the opening track from Grace and one that showcases his eclectic blend of folk, rock and soul.

High guitar note swells and harmonics enhance the beautifully haunting intro before Buckly's plaintive falsetto enters the mix. Sparse, fingerpicked guitar follows, forming a warm backdrop for the first few vocal lines: "I'm lying in my bed / The blanket is warm / This body will never be safe from harm / Still feel your hair, black ribbons of coal".

The lyrical premise of the song focuses on the 'mojo pin' in question being pulled from his heart, leaving him hurt and exposed. It's a restrained, tasteful arrangement, with smatterings of toms, bass and cyclical guitar picking. The whole ensemble continues to ebb and flow while Buckley's warm vocal falsetto glides and meanders across the whole.

5. Hallelujah - Grace (1994)

Written by Leonard Cohen and released on his 1984 album Various Positions, this track has been covered by artists such as John Cale, Rufus Wainwright, KD Laing, Myles Kennedy (with Jeff's Telecaster) and Regina Spektor. But it was Jeff Buckley's version that has really seared itself into the global consciousness.

It's a hauntingly beautiful cover, impeccably realised by Buckley. In his hands, the song attains a real fluidity, ebbing and flowing, quickening and slowing. Much of its power lies in its minimalism and sparsity. The only accompaniment is Buckley's guitar - his Telecaster - and this really enhances his breathtakingly emotive delivery.

His version has been perceived as sexual and Buckley once said it was "a hallelujah to the orgasm". But at its core the song is a soulful exploration of faith, love and what it means to be human. As April Johnson wrote in Singersroom.com in 2023, "Buckley's voice is both powerful and vulnerable, conveying a sense of longing and spiritual yearning that is both moving and inspirational."

Hallelujah is one of Buckley's most iconic and enduring tracks and has become a classic song in its own right. For many, it is the definitive version of Cohen's bitter lament about love and loss.

* "Chords are depictions of emotions" - 5 Joni Mitchell songs that showcase her guitar and songwriting genius

[cottagecori]

I am a greedy little bitch so I’ll do two:

Top 3 songs that feel like lazy Sunday morning (you can do a top 5, in generous 💕)

A guilty pleasure/wack AF headcanon about Jake or Bradley or BOTH.

well my sole purpose is to fulfill the wishes of absolutely not greedy little bitches (said with love) so here you go !!

our house (specifically the demo version where you can hear them laugh) - graham nash, joni mitchell !! it's just calming and you can hear the joy in it :')

days go by - may erlewine & the woody goss band !! it has the quiet gentle vibes that lazy sunday mornings should embody

all the time in the world (acoustic version) - stephen day !! listen to his voice and just melt

coming home - leon bridges !! lazy sunday mornings to me are the epitome of coming home so it fits

real love baby - father john misty !! this list has just become so loving and domestic and i'm not mad about it at all

SAY LESS !! (i'm gonna put this under a read more for my non-tgm friends)

a jake hc for you

this man absolutely had older sisters who dressed him up however they wanted

like i mean old halloween costumes, random outfits that do not match, dance comp costumes, you get the gist

and he would let them do it because

he was outnumbered

and they promised he could choreograph whatever dance they made afterwards

there are so many videos of jake and his sisters dancing to britney, mariah, backstreet boys, etc

(jake makes the mistake of telling this to bob who takes it upon himself to befriend jake's sisters to get the videos to give to phoenix as a birthday present)

he's also a terrible dancer but somehow these dances weren't awful (by childhood dancing standards)

you know that one video of a dancing ryan gosling?

like that but 50% worse (same amount of charisma though)

but he cannot dance as an adult

like line dancing, sure

but any other dancing??

he has to be either plastered or in love with the person making him dance (thank you fgcc for filling my brain with that one <3)

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

REPORTEDLY THE FAB FOUR'S MOST UNEVEN ALBUM -- HAPPY 60th B-DAY, "BEATLES FOR SALE."

PIC(S) INFO: Released on this day 60 years ago -- Mega spotlight on "Beatles for Sale," the fourth studio album by the English rock band THE BEATLES, released on December 4, 1964 in the UK on EMI's Parlophone label. Sleeve photo by Robert Freeman.

ALBUM OVERVIEW: "It was inevitable that the constant grind of touring, writing, promoting, and recording would grate on THE BEATLES, but the weariness of "Beatles for Sale" comes as something of a shock. Only five months before, the group released the joyous "A Hard Day's Night." Now, they sound beaten, worn, and, in Lennon's case, bitter and self-loathing.

His opening trilogy ("No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black") is the darkest sequence on any Beatles record, setting the tone for the album. Moments of joy pop up now and again, mainly in the forms of covers and the dynamic "Eight Days a Week," but the very presence of six covers after the triumphant all-original "A Hard Day's Night" feels like an admission of defeat or at least a regression. (It doesn't help that Lennon's cover of his beloved obscurity "Mr. Moonlight" winds up as arguably the worst thing the group ever recorded.)

Beneath those surface suspicions, however, there are some important changes on "Beatles for Sale," most notably Lennon's discovery of Bob Dylan and folk-rock. The opening three songs, along with "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," are implicitly confessional and all quite bleak, which is a new development.

This spirit winds up overshadowing McCartney's cheery "I'll Follow the Sun" or the thundering covers of "Rock & Roll Music," "Honey Don't," and "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," and the weariness creeps up in unexpected places -- "Every Little Thing," "What You're Doing," even George's cover of Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" -- leaving the impression that Beatlemania may have been fun but now the group is exhausted. That exhaustion results in the group's most uneven album, but its best moments find them moving from Merseybeat to the sophisticated pop/rock they developed in mid-career."

-- ALLMUSIC, review of "Beatles for Sale," written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Sources: www.discogs.com/master/45799-The-Beatles-Beatles-For-Sale, X, various, etc...

[bits-by-bittrist]

deliberate

what do i want to wear today?

rifling through my wardrobe adorned with garments, some treasured and others fashionable, one obvious for the occasion - difficulty arises.

will i have another helping of eggs?

stomach bloating, scale jumping, and desire and craving rushing through me as sweet smells fill the space between us. my body’s limit is here, but the choice remains difficult.

what am i going to do today?

though much the day is preordained, filled with this and that, one occupation and another obligation, i wonder yet.

how ought i respond to this?

deliberating on how to lead; i weigh my own needs with the needs around me, knowing the context i come from will motivate the latter. still, i am troubled.

am i ready to rest?

though i grow weary, eyes heavy, knowing i ought to rest, i can’t easily decide if i am ready for the trappings ending the day entails. still, i know i will eventually drift to sleep.

so, i lay awake with our limbs knotted and entangled to dream of a life where i keep choosing you and you keep choosing me.

though the possibilities good and bad are endless

and there is no one-size fits all partnership,

no limit to the love we may consume,

no preordained fates nor obligations with one another,

untold hard-fought compromises required,

and no shared eventuality between us except the final rest

- when that time comes -

choosing you each day will have been the easiest choice i’ve ever made.

💛 NT - 08/13/2024

[my-chaos-radio]

Release: May 23, 2011

Lyrics:

Too many voices, too many noises

Invisible wires keeping us apart

So many choices, but they're all disappointments

And they only seal me away from you

Climb into our own private bubble

Let's get into all kinds of trouble

Slide over here let your hands feel the way

There's no better method to communicate

Girl stop your talking words just get in the way

I'll be your man

So baby come over from the end of the sofa

I'll be your man, I'll be your man

So many faces, staring at their shoelaces

When all anyone wants is to be seen

So tonight let's be honest

We only want to be wanted

And darling you got me wanting you

Everything that I'm trying to say

Just sounds like a worn out cliche

Slide over here let your hands feel the way

There's no better method to communicate

Girl stop your talking words just get in the way

I'll be your man

So baby come over from the end of the sofa

I'll be your man, I'll be your man

What are we all looking for?

Someone we just can't ignore it's

Real love dripping from my heart

You've got me tripping

What are we all looking for?

Slide over here let your hands feel the way

There's no better method to communicate

Girl stop your talking words just get in the way

I'll be your man

Songwriter:

Slide over here let your hands feel the way

There's no better method to communicate

(Slide over here)

Girl stop your talking words just get in the way

I'll be your man

So baby come over from the end of the sofa

I'll be your man, I'll be your man

I'll be your man, I'll be your man

I'll be your man, I'll be your man

James Blunt / Kevin Griffin

SongFacts:

"I'll Be Your Man" is a song by British singer-songwriter James Blunt. It was released as the fourth single from his third studio album Some Kind of Trouble. The single was released as a digital download single on May 23, 2011 and as a physical single on September 9, 2011. The song was also released in the United States, where Blunt appeared on The Conan O'Brien Show and Dancing with the Stars. A music video was released on May 26, 2011, which featured footage from Blunt's Some Kind of Trouble tour.

Boston Globe's Marc Hirsh said, "Blunt is happy with these Train tracks: nine songs later (minus the whoas), he pulls the same trick on "I'll Be Your Man." ("So, baby, come over from the end." von.") Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic commented positively: "Blunt's strength lies in his embrace of the soft rock cliché, whether he's happily jumping around." on "I'll Be Your Man". Scotsman's Colin Somerville was positive: "I'll Be Your Man is Blunt getting in touch with his inner teen idol, all acoustic guitar chugging and an excuse to twitch the cymbal." Simon Price of The Independent was negative and said, "If he's trying to be 'seductive' ("I'll Be Your Man"), that's embarrassing." Mike Schiller of PopMatters said, ""I'll Be Your Man" could be John Cougar Mellencamp. "Perhaps such similarities could be seen as an homage to an artist wanting to pay tribute to those who made him such a success, but these songs are prototypical to the point of caricature of their influences," he added.

[gileam-v]

I am the lion, I am the swan I am the bull, I am the fawn I am a woman, I am the ring I am my own, never one thing ~~Never One Thing, May Erlewine

[laveyanist]

I'm a white boy from Wisconsin. I am intimately familiar with all the stereotypical white trash hype songs, there's a guilty pleasure I always take from Cotton Eyed Joe or Margaritaville. But Wagon Wheel? Now that one's another story.

I grew up in a large and distant, but still decently connected, family stemming from 5 brothers and 2 sisters. All of them grew up listening to Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and other rock and folk superstars of the era. Most of the brothers were pretty damn musical, as well, and continued passing that into the family. Almost all of my cousins are musicians in some form. Every family gathering, we'd have the family playing Blowin' In The Wind, I Know You Rider, Shine On (by Daisy May Erlewine. Listen to it, it's basically our family anthem), Long May You Run (Spotify please, find some ground with Neil. I need that song so much now.) and of course - Wagon Wheel.

It haunted me, I'd always found the chorus pretty annoying but EVERYONE would sing along to that damn song. I just never felt it. It felt so damn bland.

This last September, just a few days before my birthday, my grandfather passed away. Pretty much immediately after my cousin got married, so terrible luck gave us two family reunions in 2022. And of course, we're an Irish family, so our funerals involve drinking, eating, and live music. And his brothers got on that stage, belting Dylan, The Dead, and of course - Wagon Wheel.

And you know what? I get it. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to that song since September, I have it damn near memorized by heart. Only Old Crow Medicine Show I know, and as much as I love it now, they'll never be able to play it like my grandpa did alongside his brothers. No one will. I can remind myself of those days, but it won't ever be anywhere near as good. But either way, if Wagon Wheel ever gets played in my presence, you can be damn sure this goth boy is belting that damn song over the rest of the crowd.

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: Miranda Lambert Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Taking her cue from the vengeful spurned woman of "Kerosene," her hit debut single, Lambert has built her second album around a tough-chick persona, something that may be clear from the very title of the album, but this isn't a one-dimensional record by any stretch.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine

[nathansmart]

Okay, now this is ridiculous. It’s July, 2021 and I’m only now just publishing my 2020 year end mix. But, come one, it was 2020. Everything was all kinds of effed up - cut me some slack!

I don’t have to say how bad my year was. Everyone’s year was bad. Let’s all just pretend it didn’t happen (like the high percentage of you who are not getting vaccinated) and listen to some great music.

STREAM / DOWNLOAD (.zip, 198.73 MB) You can either download this .zip file which has all of the songs as separate files, or you can stream and download the “mixed” version I made with all of the songs together by clicking the play button above or the little download arrow in the same box.

Tracklist: 1. Some Boys Never Learn - Jae Laffer 2. If You Think This is Real Life - Blossoms 3. Ribs - Neil Cicierega 4. Surreal - Dan Croll 5. Have You Fed Baby Huey Today - Surprise Chef 6. Who are the Electors? - They Might Be Giants 7. Puppeteer - Jerry Paper 8. Landmine - I Know Leopard 9. Ooh La La - Run the Jewels 10. Human Girl - Guerilla Toss 11. The Steps - Haim 12. Revising My Fee - Mush 13. Do What I Want - The Chats 14. The Barrel - Aldous Harding 15. Got to Know What’s Going on - Bill Wurtz 16. Clorox Wipe - Chromeo 17. magnetic - joan 18. Anyway - May Erlewine & Woody Goss 19. No One Holds You Closer (The One You Haven’t Met) - The Lemon Twigs 20. Strange Overtones - Whitney 21. bloodstream - Soccer Mommy 22. (I Don’t Want to Be a) Billionaire - Theo Katzman 23. U.D.I.G. (UNITED DEFENDERS OF INTERNATIONAL GOODWILL) - R.A.P. Ferreira 24. Golden (feat. Cody Fry) - Cory Wong 25. Hey Hi Hello - Danny and Alex

[qedavathegrey]

Now that's a love song. I just love May. She's the physical embodiment of adult contemporary.