Music Shallow Dive (Kate Bush week)

[poorpete]

Listening a lot to "Rags and Rufus" which is great.


This song in particular is fabulous... and familiar! I've searched the internet trying to figure out if I may have known it previously (it was also a song by Diana Ross though unsure if I heard that version either. It's by Ashford & Simpson, so maybe I they just write great songs).

[poorpete]

Everyone's doing something interesting here. The chorus sounds like something from Lauryn Hill.

[Phoebe]

Love it! Surprised these albums are not sampled more nowadays.

[poorpete]

Very happy with what I heard from Chaka, thanks for the recs! Onto Pat Benatar, of who [I think] I only know the few famous ones...

[poorpete]

More famous ones than I thought Id know. And, sacreligeous but I kinda like her experiments with new sounds

[poorpete]

Her 1979 debut is solid and already has her straying from her 70s rock formula. She really didn't put her eggs in one basket, musically, and could have easily slid into a Linda Rondstadt (her perfectly fine cover of Mellencamps "I Need a Lover") or post-Punk (she later covers Kate Bush -- and aces her delivery -- on her second album) sound.

My favorite though, apart from the undeniable "Heartbreaker", is the this one, which really nails the future 80s sound, with its crunchy rock guitars merging with the disco aesthetic. Probably helped to have Blondie's producer on board too...

[poorpete]

I really really like this one: I can imagine how this would have infuriated some, especially the first three seconds, where it sounds like it's going to be head-bangingly hard...



And she starts singing spanish in the end, which convinces me more that she really wanted to be Linda Rondstadt (or maybe Debbie Harry).

[Phoebe]

Sorry I have been missing your Pat Benatar dive - it's easy to feel like you know her well, yet do I even know more than a handful songs by her? Never bought a whole album back in the day, so only know things that have been on the radio. She always seemed independent and fierce and powerful, which is a good look for women pop stars!

[Phoebe]

WHOOOOOOAAAAA Pat Benatar week has proven shocking and is distracting me from the five incredibly boring files I'm supposed to be working on right now. I was fine just letting it play in the background until the though occurred to me, what if some of these 80's hits of hers heavy with 80's epic wall-o-synthesizer were remade as, you know, normal songs? Now, I'm not saying this is all the way there, but it's way different and imo much better:



Pretty sure that is her long-time husband as well as guitarist/musical collaborator there? So they do belong together, squeak, how cute! Also, she's sixty-freaking-one in the year this is filmed! Still a fashion icon at that age. However, back in the day here, we had an unusually fully-clothed fashion icon also bringing the hair inspiration. I did my hair exactly like this for a while, like so many others of the ancient era:



I am rather gleeful about the youthful optimism of the lyrics contrasted with the most recent Invincible song I've been listening to (Tool's, lol, the broken down warrior etc etc snort); Pat Benatar is the real revolutionary, it seems, and that goes for the hair too. However, since you are probably not as interested in doing the deep dive in order to get fresh hairstyle tips, I think this is one of the pinnacles of her vocal awesomeness, at least of the limited selections I know:



And she's Polish.

[poorpete]

Yup that's her husband Neil Geraldo, who is also nominated as part of "Pat Benatar" -- looking back, only the second time that's happened for a solo artist (four of Alice Cooper's band members were inducted as "Alice Cooper"). Look at me pretending me smart after looking things up and spending one week with an artist I knew very little about.

Maybe I should care about hair? Nah, maybe I'll keep that to the 50s, but I never put much thought into my style, for better and worse.

I really like "Promises in the Dark"!

Was debating for next week between Kate Bush and Annie Lennox/Eurythmics, but will take a pause after three-straight 80s era artists, and for the first time since December 2017, and focus on a male musician, if that's okay.

Next week is Otis Redding week!

[poorpete]

Starting with what's fascinating about his biggest hit


Written and recorded just prior to his death, (and sitting on a dock), and he wanted to change things up and unlike anything he had done before.

It definitely doesn't have the theatrics, the emotive, the on-the-sleeve pathos of his other songs. It's calm but still has pathos, still has a vibe that's completely new, a bit soul (it does have horns, and his delivery sounds almost like the blue-eyed-soul from Van Morrison to Bob Seger), a bit rock (but inspired by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, with its story-telling song-writing and sound-effects), and definitely a bit country (the acoustic guitar / whistling like it's the Andy Griffith show / even sounds like he has a drawl some times, which -- I mean he is southern, so I guess that makes sense).

It's perplexing, but maybe it's sorta like those 80s monster ballads, where aggressive rockers found glory by calming down a few notches.... would have been interesting to see if this was a presage of his future or a one-off. Since it became a big hit, probably the former.

[Phoebe]

You picked a good one for the week!

[poorpete]

Better than the original, better than the remix by Jay-Z and Kanye, better than Donkey singing it to Shrek, is the Live in Europe version of "Try a Little Tenderness"



It goes so well for the first half, the ballad section, the drums really leading the excitement for what's to come. Also, I'm not a fan of screaming from audience members (I mean, the Beatles were the greatest, but the audience makes their live stuff, hmm, let's say imperfect), but having only a few screams really adds to this version. And the best part of the song, I think most would agree, certainly Jay-Z Kanye and Donkey agree, is the crescendo, and it's over way too soon in the original, played just twice before the fade-out. Here it's played extendedly and it's absolutely amazing. I listened to it over and over again... and just now again.

[poorpete]

Oh his live performances are endlessly watchable, wow


Otis: Wonderful to see his joy and energy, a lil disapointed the crowd doesn't completely match the frenzy, nor does his band -- though I get they were a few months away from the sea-change where bands didn't have to look and act professional. Also cool to see the MGs play, and Steve Cropper: Crazy how prim and propper he is, looks like he grew his hippie/blues beard and long hair around 1970.

Really enjoying this album, completely solid, but, the album cover...


Oh no. I mean, good on them to have a concept for a cover, but they should've... not done this. But everything inside... check out this cover of Day Tripper, which sounds more of a pre-sage to the San Fransisco hippie sound than the original.

[poorpete]

Oh!! Last week was Annie Lennox week, and because I didn't get to hear enough, I've made it a two week experience. Or let's say last week: The Eurthymics, this week Annie Lennox. Anyways, she's great.

I'm really enjoying this one from the Diva album

Sometimes, because I worry, I worry how a song will affect me, if it's going to be depressing or deep. But mostly I'm worried these songs will just make me more anxious. When I'm doing this right, I accept a song and let it flow over me, and 99.9% of the time, it moves me, and makes me better. And this is one. It's fricken beautiful.

Gotta say, that album's side 1 is toploaded. Was there a more confident, sure-footed step into a solo career?

Also, after a few months, I must admit the "deep" part of "deep dive" has not worked out, so changing it to "shallow" which is much more do-able, but, like actual shallow dives, probably not the best experience. Like, I did listen to every Otis Redding album, but can I recall any of the songs I heard only once? Nope.

[poorpete]

A Stevie Wonder harmonica solo is like Dolly Parton singing harmonies. It's an essential addition to every song.

[poorpete]

I think any artist whose best of output needs to be put on 2 discs, they should be a shoo-in for the Rock Hall, and Annie has a greatest hits solo and one with the Eurtythmics and that should put her over the top.

Anywho -- next week, going with one of the Rock Hall nominees I don't know so well -- Motörhead.

[poorpete]

I enjoy Motorhead. My friends had a group that played in the punk/hard-rock sound and I can hear the influence now. My friends' band prided themselves on being about, first and foremost, rock and roll, and reading up so did Lemmy. He hated being put in any subcategory. But here's the thing, and I love my friends, but when you play one type of rock and roll and also put a flag down saying that you are rock and roll, you create an orthodoxy, and Rock is an expansive term. Sister Rosetta invented Rock n Roll, Chuck Berry made it a genre, and Elvis made it huge. To claim the key to Rock and Roll is sex, uppers, and 3 minute head bangers, is to ignore its origins and it's divergent paths since. But it's a part, for sure.

Anyways, the Ace of Spades album is pretty fab. Some of the songs have stood out. I mean the opener, for sure, but also ones like Road Crew:

[poorpete]

In conclusion, they are good, and influential, and because I didn't dive deep enough, I felt most of the songs sounded about the same. They all definitely had the saaame attitude.

Ok, onto Kate Bush -- I may extend this over a few weeks (or like Otis, return to her over the month, we'll see). I am aware of some "Wurthering Heights" (thanks to Pat Benetar) but mostly her most acclaimed work, "Hounds of Love" of which I fell for as a work of great art and great pop last year.

I was very excited when "Running Up the Hill" came on the radio in the car almost randomly last week (I rarely hear anything on Upstate radio beyond the hits of new and old). I was doubly excited that, when I turned off the car when I got home, my 7yo daughter said "aw, I wanted to hear the rest!" So we went inside and played it again.

That said, my fav from Hounds of Love Side 1 is "Big Sky" with the biggest drums that have never been sampled in a hip hop song... maybe because there's never a drum break, but come on DJs and super producers, you can isolate them, you are missing out!



My favorite from Side 2 is "Jig of Life" which lives up to the title. To hear the 80s pop mastery of Side 1 only to add an extended irish dance fiddle-off breakdown and have her brother do an over-the-top spoken-word section and it all works perfectly. A mood. A masterpiece.



Tripply excited to hear more and more.

[poorpete]

Have been listening back and forth between The Kick Inside (feat "Wurthering Heights") and Never For Ever (feat. "Babooshka) and then occasionally the Sensual World.

It's official: I'M A FAN