Music has always been a part of my life -- now welcome to the journey. Just a little blog to reminisce, review, rant and rave about the music in my life. "Music is my mother and my father. It is my work and my rest,my blood, my compass, my love" ~Jeff Buckley
Just who the f*#k is Dana (distortion) Yavin? Only the hottest music
photographer who is opening up a store with clothes and accessories based on
her photos and love of ... music. (And I think she has one of the most awesome
jobs in the world).
While I use words to tell you about shows or thoughts on albums, she uses
her eyes and her love of music to capture gorgeous photos some of you may have
seen in Brooklyn Vegan, Spin, NME, or Rolling Stone. Gogol Bordello, Red Hot
Chili Peppers, Baby Metal to name a very few of those fortunate enough to be in
front of her lens. You see and feel the music in her photos. She has a passion for all things rock and now she is making rock inspired fashion.
You can look at, listen to, and now wear rock.
Stop by her pop-up store, Distortion Unplugged,
this Saturday in the East Village. Check out some clothes and totes before you
can get them online. Go to https://www.distortionunplugged.comto see some of glam wear that you can sport to your next concert.
\m/\m/
To uncover rules of life
And how to break them well
And the key to my gypsy auto pilot
And my story to tell, hey!
Oh, can't you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take
The Police - Every Breath You Take
I am notorious for having to know the lyrics of a
song. Why was it written? What is the symbolism? I love the thoughts and
research that some artists put into a song. I admit I have
ruined a song for some people and have to practice restraint most of the time.
I apologize in advance if I am about to do it again. To me, a misplaced song in
a show or movie is as bad as a character that is there for no reason.
Do your research people -- or come and see me first. Here are some of the most
notoriously mis-understood love songs.
Dave Matthews - Crash Into Me
Sexy love song this is not. Creepy stalker voyeur
reminiscent of The Police classic Every Breath You Take it is. It seems
like a love song. It delivers like a love song. I guess it is a love song--sort
of??
Oh I watch you there
through the window
And I stare at you
You wear nothing but you
wear it so well
Creep. Ok, sadly, some might be okay with Dave
Matthews staring at them through the window without knowing ... I would prefer
to know then, I guess, all of sudden that creep factor kind of subsides -
anyway...
Matthews has jokingly stated this song was
written as an alternative to getting arrested. Hey, he said it, not me. We still love you
anyway, Dave.
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA
Very good example of why you should understand
what the song is about before you use it for, I don't know, for something
like your presidential campaign.
Ronald Reagan said of Born in the USA and
Bruce Springsteen:
America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your
hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans
admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams
come true is what this job of mine is all about.
Sure Ronnie, messages of hope, uh
huh, being a down on your luck Vietnam Veteran blue collar
worker, losing your faith and spirit in the country you were once so proud
of, this song is...completely and utterly not a song of hope but of despair.
This is a classic case of judging a book by its cover.
R.E.M. - The One I Love
Again, deceitful. Stipe grabs you with
the seeming dedication at the beginning ... This one goes out to the
one I love. But wait - listen. After he has you in the nice hug, his
arms tighten with the next line ... this one goes out to the one I've
left behind. WTF? Left behind? And when you think the grip is so
tight, he takes you and throws you to the ground A simple prop to occupy my
time. A song about never ending love? Hardly. A song written from the point
of view of someone who has had their heart ripped out and stomped on several
times, possibly.
U2 - Love is Blindness
When it comes to songs, Bono can be a sneaky
bugger. 99% of the songs he writes with Edge are
blanketed in religious symbolism and politics. Songs like Pride,
Please, and Bullet the Blue Sky are seeped in politics and religion.
Love is Blindness is no exception to this rule. You are correct in
assuming that Bono is singing about love. He is singing about love of country
and love of identity. He just happens to be singing it from the point of view
of a car bomber:
In a parked car in a crowded street
You see your love made complete
Love is clockworks
And cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Blindness
A little death without mourning
No call and no warning
Baby a dangerous idea, that almost makes sense
If there
was deleted scene in Blown Away that could be created today -
Tommy Lee Jones would be dancing around and singing this song.
Faith No More - Underwater Love
Mike Patton totally and completely freaked me out
with this song. Yeah, I sing along to it and people look at you in a very odd
way when you do. It's upbeat, especially when he sings it live. Like he's
riding on a carousel, not drowning his love.
Bubbling up to the surface
Are you getting a breath of fresh air?
Forever longing to make you mine
But I can't escape your stare...
Liquid seeps into your lungs
But your eyes look so serene
A far cry from Epic (okay there was the
fish) or Falling to Pieces, Mike takes drowning his love to another love
- forever longing to make you mine.
Radiohead - Creep
This is just a sad love song. You can hear the
quiet sadness in the beginning that builds and builds from the anger and
frustrtaion of loving someone and feeling that they are too good for you.
I'm a creep.
I'm a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
You listen to it again and realize what's going
on:
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
I wish I was special
You're so fucking special
Ok, first I was really being hard on myself. Then
it's like - you know what. Screw you. You're so special but I'm still feeling
hard on myself. I still love you but I'm feeling like a freak.
I don't belong here
Harsh. Who hasn't been there. Yup, we all have.
Maybe not to the Thom Yorke sense, but we've all been there. (This will blow
your mind: The Pretenders covering Creep:
Motley Crue - You're All I Need
Bassist Nikki Sixx was so ahead of the Law and
Order SVU curve when he wrote this song. Supposedly "ripped from the
headlines", the song seems so romantic if you're only catching the chorus
You're all I need, make you only mine. Most people missed the first verse at
this point:
The blade of my knife
Faced away from your heart
Those last few nights
It turned and sliced you apart
This love that I tell
Now feels lonely as hell
From this padded prison cell
Oh, prison cell, you say. This guy, similar to
Mike Patton, was not going to lose his girl - ever. This video was
banned from MTV.
And finally, one of the most misunderstood songs (my opinion) is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Used often to mourn, look more closely, it is a very sensual love song. (See my own post, A Misguided Hallelujah). Many religious references are in the song, but they are of references to the Bibles infamous lovers. Kind David, Samson, Delilah, and Bathsheba.
To quote Jeff Buckley himself: Whoever
listens carefully to 'Hallelujah' will discover that it is a song about
sex, about love, about life on earth...It's an ode to life and love. Thoughts? He truly sang the words with longing, passion, want of
physical closeness.
There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Yes, I have stayed away from songs like She
Bop, Turning Japanese and Dancing With Myself - even
though self love does count as love.And if I ruined ANY of those three songs
for you, I make no apologies.
To me, songs are like poetry. The artist (usually)
is trying to get a message or story or feeling across to the listener. Next
time, listen, try and figure out what it is they are trying to say or what
story they are trying to tell...especially before you dedicate it to someone you love.
John Simon Ritchie AKA Sid Vicious, defined the rock and roll tragedy of live fast and die young. The "bass" player from the Sex Pistols reached cult status due to his outrageous behavior, tragic relationship with Nancy Spungeon, and young death at the age of 21. Why the "" around bass? According to Motörhead's Lemmy in an interview with Room13:
R13: Is it true you tried to teach Sid Vicious how to play the bass? L: Yeah. It was all uphill. And he still couldn't play bass when he died, I mean, fucking hell. Well, and everybody knows that, just listen to the Sex Pistols record that he was on, you know, you can tell it's Steve standing in for him. In fact I'm not sure if Sid was ever on the record, I think it was Steve who played bass.
He met John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten, in 1973 and eventually would came up with the name Sid Vicious. For those music trivia buffs out there, Sid was the name of Ritchie's per hamster. Upon being bit by the hamster, Lydon is rumored to have said "this hamster Sid is vicious." Voila !
Chelsea Hotel, 2012, pmc
Erratic behavior from sweet to raging violent. But Sid showed in the mockumentary The Great Rock and Roll Swindle that he did have talent. The boy could really sing. It was, however, his on and off stage antics that he would be more known for. Drugs, alcohol, partying, filth: that was Sid in a nutshell.
It would be, sadly, his relationship with Nancy Spungeon, that would make him infamous. On October 12, 1978, Sid would find Nancy dead, stabbed in their room at the Chelsea Hotel. Their tumultuous relationship filled with fights, abuse and drugs. Nancy had left her Pennsylvania home for London and met Sid. It would be a love made in hell for both of them.
Sid would eventually be charged with second degree murder and taken to Riker's Island, pleading his innocence the entire time. Was it a drug induced fight? Was it a drug dealer looking for money? No one alive will ever know what really happened. February 1, 1979, Sid was released after posting bail. Sid, clean after going through a detox program, attended a party in his honor. Sid would though inject heroin again that night, against the wishes of his new girlfriend. It would then be his own mother responsible for the death of her son as she gave her son the final injection that would kill him early in the morning on February 2, 1979.
In a 1977 interview with the Daily Mail, Sid told the interviewer I'll probably die by the time I reach 25. But I'll have lived the way I wanted to. In a reported suicide note found in his leater jacket, Sid's only wish was to be buried by Nancy. Because she was Jewish, Sid's ashes were instead scattered over her grave.
It is indeed a very tragic tale, but mythically kept alive as if it was some sort of Punk Romeo and Juliet. Infamous stardom, fame, drugs, love, death and debauchery: the life of John Simon Ritchie.
Sid and Nancy the film, starring Gary Oldman (and you can see Courtney Love in a few scenes)
Sid going to see an idol in concert - David Bowie 1973
It was the beginning of July in West Belfast, 2001. My fellow interns had set me up on a surprise date with a local waiter - who turned out to be going to law school. That night had been particularly violent in North Belfast getting a ride out of West Belfast wasn't going to happen until early in the morning. It was over homemade spaghetti carbonara that he asked if I had heard George Michael's song with Mary J Blige, As. There I was on a date, in a stranger's house listening to this beautiful song and outside there was pandemonium. George always had his way of leaving an impression on my life.
George Michael was introduced to me, of course as for many, through Wham. Who didn't love the catchy beats of Wake Me Up (and those shorts in the video) or the infamous saxophone on Careless Whisper. It would be Faith of course that impacted me forever. While at 10, I didn't know what any of those songs were about, George was cute and those songs were like nothing I had heard before. The grooves on that album are worn more than any other I have.
I went through some typical identity issues growing up and Listen Without Prejudice and Older became my therapists. Notwithstanding, the video for Freedom combined my love of supermodels and George. Songs like They Won't Go When I Go and Cowboys and Angels were nothing compared to the songs on Faith. I was growing as his songs were. His career was marred by loss, poor decisions, and health issues.While his celebrity did fade, no one can take away what talent he gave to an entire MTV generation. And as days passed, the genuine, giving, and selfless George Michael is rrevealed. The man lived to love and give.
The summer of 1992 is marked by the video for Too Funky. More models but with the line from The Graduate: Would you like me to seduce you? It became my line for the summer. And again, I was the quirky one quoting things way outside of my age group.
George Michael's loss at only 53 extinguishes a voice that so many recognize as a part of their youth. Faith remains one of my favorite albums, at the ready for the turntable when stress strikes or I want to reminisce of days of young.
You put your tears behind you
Better get yourself where you wanna be
I think of all the days and nights I spent crying
Before my angel set me free
