What are you listening to right now?

[barracuda]

The estate of Chesney Henry Baker Jr. has removed all his work from YouTube except this clip, so I'll have to post other artist's versions of my favorite Chet classic vocals. Usually, though, when I need Chet Baker, no one else will do...



Chaka Khan - My Funny Valentine

Mina - Everything Happens to Me

Peggey Lee - Just one of those things

[Jeff]

Paranoid Larry - Jesus Shaves

Iris Dement - He Reached Down

Luke Kelly - Scorn Not His Simplicity

Stan Rogers - The Mary Ellen Carter, introduced by Bob Cusick ("After his ordeal, Cusick wrote a letter to Stan Rogers telling him what had happened and how the song helped save his life. In response, Cusick was invited to attend what turned out the be the second-to-last concert Rogers ever performed.")

[barracuda]

Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne
Und die trägt er im Gesicht
Und MacHeath, der hat ein Messer
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht

An 'nem schönen blauen Sonntag
Liegt ein toter Mann am Strand
Und ein Mensch geht um die Ecke,
Den man Mackie Messer nennt

Und Schmul Meier bleibt verschwunden
Und so mancher reiche Mann
Und sein Geld hat Mackie Messer
Dem man nichts beweisen kann

Jenny Towler ward gefunden
Mit 'nem Messer in der Brust
Und am Kai geht Mackie Messer,
Der von allem nichts gewußt

Und die minderjährige Witwe
Deren Namen jeder weiß
Wachte auf und war geschändet
Mackie welches war dein Preis?

Refrain
Und die einen sind im Dunkeln
Und die anderen sind im Licht
Doch man sieht nur die im Lichte
Die im Dunklen sieht man nicht

Doch man sieht nur die im Lichte
Die im Dunklen sieht man nicht

[compared2what?]

Just got this yesterday from the guys on the street from whom I buy books and records:



I love the "WITH TEXTS BY BERT BRECHT" line.

Also the implicit sense that it's only random chance that you happen not to be looking at it at the moment that she would otherwise be telling you that weasels ripped her flesh, Rzzzzz!

Got some other treasures, too. I fear that someone with good taste might have been evicted recently. Though I hope they just moved.

[Jeff]

Whenever I experience work-related panic and think Holy crap, I need to get serious here, I listen to Mahler. And when I have it really bad, it has to be Symphony No. 5.

The trumpets tell me, Alright, stop fucking around.

[barracuda]

Above is portrait of Raul Julia in the role of Mackie on Broadway, 1977. Here's a variety of interpretations of the Death Song, all of them pretty cool, I think.

The original, pretty much a german drinking song, sung by the lyricist.
Bertolt Brecht - Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

A Czechoslovakian movie vertsion form the mid-ixties. Amazing piece of film that should be in the dance thread too.
Miloš Kopecký - Mackie Messer

A Bavarian indie band doing a nice hard rock version und mit den elektrischen Gitarren und zwei Schlagzeuger, ach der lieber!
SLUT - Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

Hildegard Knef appearred in the 1963 film version with Sammy Davis Jr.
Hildegard Knef - Mackie Messer

Ute Lemper - Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

Sting - the Moritat of Mackie Messer

[streeb]

Pete Ham, April 27, 1947 – April 24, 1975

Badfinger - No Matter What

Badfinger - Baby Blue

[compared2what?]

I love Badfinger. My own version of OCD compels me to play

Day After Day seven or eight times in a row every time I've finished playing "No Matter What" seven or eight times in a row.

So here it is. Sound on this YouTubes rendition blows. Sorry. Will replace if I can find one that's LOUDER and has better separation.

ON EDIT: This one is cleaner, but still not LOUD ENOUGH.

However, lovely George Harrison-style subtle waterfall-wall-of-sound production.

Plus, yet another band with some deaths that aren't totally unrelated to their management by Allen Klein, though not really attributable to him, either, to be fair.

[streeb]

Thanks C2W. Have you seen this? Nuthin' sacred...

It'd be okay if I thought either Pete Ham's or Tom Evan's families were benefiting from the royalties.

[compared2what?]

Beware of Darkness -- George Harrison

Let It Down -- George Harrison.

Plus a tribute selected to balance out all those quotes in the "Beware of Darkness" video:

The Pirate Song -- "Pirate Bob"

ON EDIT: Streeb -- Yeah, I saw that, and immediately decided to let it pass, as all things must. Best possible approach, I figure.

[barracuda]

When I hear Badfinger, for some reason I can't help but think of Eric Carmen. These live clips shows that he was really a pretty good rock power singer.

Raspberries - Go All The Way

Raspberries - Tonight

[barracuda]

And my own favorite Badfinger song, and a personal all-time favorite pop song anywhere, anytime,

Badfinger - Without You

which was superseded in the public memory by the intensely beautiful Nilsson cover version, which he sadly lip-synchs in this video that must have been taken shortly before his death.

Harry Nilsson - Without You

Nilsson had his own great thing goin' on, that's for sure. He wrote some songs himself which became part of the soundtrack for the broken American dream, like:

Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin'

and this song which took this band to #1 on the US charts:

Three Dog Night - One

But when it comes to Three Dog Night, my favorite is:

Three Dog Night - Eli's Coming

which, of course was written by:

Laura Nyro - Eli's Comin'

Fuck, she could sing, too. Brilliant. She wrote this one too:

Laura Nyro - Stoned Soul Picnic

As well as "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoney End" and:

Blood, Sweat & Tears - And When I Die

I was fortunate enough to see her at a small venue in S.F. around 1994 with Carole King. King wrote the only real hit Nyro ever had on the radio as a performer,

Carole King - Up On The Roof

In early seventies sweet melodies ruled the pop charts.

[compared2what?]

I can never really hear "Without You." My mind plays "Sister Goldenhair" on top of it.

Here, one I hear as a love song, rather than a novelty song:

You're Breakin' My Heart -- Harry Nillsen

and

Midnight Cowboy Theme -- John Barry's version, not the one in the movie.

It will be the most beautiful thing you have ever heard in your life, if you have not yet heard it.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

My old band:

Floor

[compared2what?]

Jesus God, you guys fucking rocked.

This might not belong here, but:

[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=p-pNg9vrCpY&feature=related]Sister Christian -- Night Ranger

Jesse's Girl -- Rick Springfield[/url]

My favorite use of rock music by an auteur is actually Jonathan Demme's skillful deployment of former Gainesville native Tom Petty's "American Girl" in Silence of the Lambs. It establishes that character so totally, you never need another reminder, and it does it damn fast, too.

But I also really, really like it that Mr. Anderson decided to add the element of torture-your-audience-via-power-ballad to the overall tension in the above, which, when you are watching the whole movie for the first time is already at almost run-from-the-theater levels by the time this part rolls around.

Plus, it's been on my mind ever since I mentioned that I saw Albert Maysle's camera work in other movies. I believe you see something he did in the "Wild Horses" clip from Gimme Shelter here. In any event, I've never seen it anyplace other than there and here.

Also: Academy Award to Alfred Molina for best performance by an actor appearing in only a single scene.