15 February 2013 - Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

I looked back.  I had never posted this song before.  That is a surprise, since, in my mind, it was one of the first I had in mind to put on this blog. (I did post a cover of it by the Dandy Warhols on our sister blog, Totally Covered.  You can see that here.)

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was launched on June 8, 1958, the largest ship on the Great Lakes.  She was built to carry large amounts of iron ore between Duluth, Minnesota and other Great Lakes cities, like Toledo and Detroit, that relied on said ore.

On November 9, 1975, The SS Edmund Fitzgerald pulled out of Duluth for the last time, en route to Detroit.  The very next day,  the ship was caught in a severe winter storm and suddenly sank, killing all 29 crew members on board.  No bodies were ever recovered from the wreck.

Gordon Lightfoot, who is a Canadian treasure, read a Newsweek article about the tragedy, and wrote this song, which he considers his finest work, as do I.  Despite the minor historical inaccuracies of the song - the ship wasn't bound for Cleveland, the main hatchway apparently didn't really give way - it is a fitting and beautiful tribute to the ship, the crew, and the disaster.  It remains one of my 20 favorite songs of all time, in its beautiful storytelling and simple musical arrangement.



I mention the historical inaccuracies because, in 2010, 35 years after the song was released, Gordon changed the lyrics to reflect the fact that the main hatch didn't give way, and that it was not crew error, but waves that caused the ship to go down.  Here is Gord performing the song live in 2012, with the new lyrics.  He's still got it.

14 February 2013 - Two Sides of Valentine's Day

OK, I really couldn't decide what video to post for Valentine's Day. Do I appeal to the lovebirds or the haters? Then it hit me, post two videos and make everyone happy or miserable (I suppose).

Here's some Sundays for all you lovebirds out there.



And now here's some Guns 'N' Roses for all you haters.

13 February 2013 - Bonde do Rolê - Brazilian Boys (feat. Cécile)

Let me be blunt: Bonde do Rolê are gifted remixers.  But they're also musicians in their own right.  Their music has traditionally combined Brazilian funk, punk, and club music styles.

With their last album - the first without original lead singer Marina Ribatski - they added dancehall to their style repertoire. Here, new vocalist Laura Taylor, who is more subtle than Marina Gasolina, easily captures the combination of bravado and sexuality needed to pull off a dancehall song.  They do enlist the assistance of Cécile. who is well-known in the dancehall world.

Really, they're a completely different band without Marina, but still fun and enjoyable.

12 February 2013 - Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love

Anyone who watched the Grammy's on Sunday saw the fantastically understated duet Ed Sheeran did with Sir Elton John (they played Sheeran's hit single The A Team). Wait, did I just compliment Elton John? Understated? Well I did, and it was. Seeing that The A Team is pretty much all over the radio (and for some time now), I thought I'd go with a more recent single from his + record.


By the way, Sheeran will be taking his live show on the road this spring/summer opening for some small-town girl from Pennsylvania who plays a mix of country and pop music. I hear she's very popular.

11 February 2013 - Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

Nicki Minaj is truly a unique artist, doing things musically that women just don't do very much - sing in a hip-hop style bluntly about having sex and being boastful, just like men would. In other words, she raps like a guy.

But it isn't all about the.... well, super bass.  There's some soulfulness and softness to this music, and I love that!



If she was nothing but a conceited diva, this post would end here.  But she isn't. She's a nice lady who appreciates her fans.  Here she is doing a duet of this song with a very very young fan.... and happily getting upstaged.

8 February 2013 - will.i.am featuring Britney Spears - Scream and Shout

I. Can't. Look. Away!

This is typical pop electronica fare, sparsely done, and typically boastful.  Nothing really special here.

But. I. Can't. Look. Away!

It's almost like will.i.am did little more than sample "Britney, bitch."  (OK, she does a little bit more here)  The combination of these two is still, despite all this seeming mediocrity, is still compelling and will get you humming the tune all day.  And saying "Britney, bitch."

7 February 2013 - The Cardigans - My Favourite Game

I have a tendency to post my favorite songs of all time.  This includes songs that are clear guilty pleasures.  This one isn't so clear, but is one of my 10 favorite songs of all time.  Let me explain.

The Cardigans became a big hit in the US with a particular hit - "Lovefool" - that has been featured on this blog by Scott in the past.  It, like the song that preceded it - "Carnival", which got some alternative radio play in this country - was light fare, with a lovely subject matter.

That's not really representative of The Cardigans.  The followup single to "Lovefool" - "Been It", a future Wicked Guilty Pleasure - was closer to that in subject matter - a little darker.   And this song - the lead single from their Gran Turismo album that followed - was exactly what they are all about - straight-ahead rock sound and dark subject matter.  I, for one, love the guitar hook, a honking-type sound, in this song.

This video is an even greater pleasure, though.  In each of the no less than five versions of the video, Nina Persson is driving a '74 Eldorado erratically down an California highway. This version, the edited version seen mostly in Europe, features pretty much nothing more than that.



The other versions end with a head-on collision with a blue van carrying the rest of the band, with several car crashes caused by Persson included within. These versions include varying amounts of blood and violence.  In the US, we are much more numb to violence.  This is the darkest version of the video, which ends with a dead Nina Persson.


In this version of the video, the ending is more comedic.  While Nina is still using a rock to hold down the accelerator and still has a head-on collision in which she is ejected from the car, she survives that and sits up.... only to be hit in the head with the rock falling with a cartoony sound.



This version of the video is practically bloodless, but still violent, but ends with Nina getting up and walking away from her ejection.



Finally, in this version, (which is identical, so we'll show you just the end) Nina is not ejected - only beheaded. And it's the worst fake head I've ever seen.