Lady Gaga on Repeat

Lady Gaga’s latest collection dropped this week following a slow rollout of individual songs and videos. The initial songs struck me much like previous songs of hers, I was not immediately blown away, but they grew on me the more I heard them. After listening to ARTPOP straight through a few times, I felt the same way. The songs grew on me.

Now that the album is fully released, I look forward to seeing how it is performed in the coming months through videos, television appearances, and in concert. Lady Gaga’s music can stand alone, but it is not fully complete without the performance pieces included. She is a performance artist like we have not seen in a generation. Each performance (essentially every time she is seen in public) for the next months will be completing the story of ARTPOP.

Better than any of her previous albums, ARTPOP tells a story. The songs stand alone, but they also stand together. So far I have not heard any individual songs that strike me as a “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” or “Edge of Glory,” which are songs I could put on repeat just for themselves. Then again, I did not pick any of them initially when listening to The Fame or Born This Way.

Despite not finding a go-to song on the initial listen, I am certain I will find songs that will grow on me and that I will return to from time to time just as I did with the previous albums. Much of that connection will come in the following months as the ARTPOP performance plays itself out. The first week has not made me fall in love with the album, but I am at the same place I was with Gaga’s previous releases and they are still among my most played collections even after a few years. As happy as I am that she has released a new cd, I am even happier that there will be another year of Lady Gaga in performance.

"Chaos and Piss" and Friends

         In the middle of what seemed like a crisis-a-day with various friends, each dealing with different events crashing about them, I paused to write, “the knot at the end of the rope is not for hanging onto, it is for untying so you can go a little farther.” So many friends were dealing with such different problems, I reached a point where I genuinely struggled with maintaining myself so I could continue supporting them. I began to wonder what would support me.

         It was also around the time I purchased P!nk’s newest CD. I listened to it in bits and pieces without paying much attention to what was on it. After seeing her performance of “Try” at the American Music Awards, I decided that I needed to take some time and actually listen to the music, so I did what I do when I want to focus on a song: I made myself comfortable in my recliner, opened iTunes, put the headphones on, and cranked up the volume to a comfortable level, closed my eyes, and listened.

         Confession: I have been a P!nk fan since her earliest releases. I have never been able to define a particular thing about her, but her songs and persona present a bit of fierceness that we often hide in our female musicians. Her lyrics rarely hide her intent. They are direct, brash, and strong. Her newest CD, The Truth About Love is no different. There are a few (three) songs on the CD that I will listen through, but twelve of the fifteen, I have a hard time not hitting the repeat button the moment they end. Each one has lyrics that strike me to the core. However, there is one song that I have, according to iTunes, listened to over sixty times now. “Chaos and Piss” has become my go-to song anytime I begin to feel frustrated or down.

         Every once in a while a song strikes such a deep chord that it becomes the song of the moment. I do not think “Chaos and Piss” will be a big hit on the radio, but the lyrics so strike to the heart of so much in my life right now, that I cannot ignore it. It offers both guidance and truths I need to hear. Not many songs accomplish that.

         The second verse launches into a lesson I need to learn better, “Hey, I also feel things, more than I should, I don't relax very often, as often as I could.” Feeling passionately and deeply is one reason my friends come to me when they are in crisis. I am good at empathy, but…there are things I internalize that I do not need to. I cannot be much assistance to my friends when I empathize to the point of helplessness. I try to hide my feelings, but I do feel things, more than I should.

         The chorus, though is what keeps me coming back: “I don't feel like

Coming down, no I don't; I don't feel like Hiding out, so I won't; I can't turn the volume down; So I sit here in this, Chaos and piss, Watching the storm, passing; Storms are beautiful, Right here is beautiful.” The final chorus changes the last lines to, “Watching the storm passing, Storms are beautiful;

This life is beautiful, It is...” Those final lines may be what attract me so much to the song. Despite the challenges we all face from time to time, the storms are beautiful and so is life. When we are in the middle of a crisis, we have a hard time seeing the beauty in the difficult time, but it is there.

The song came to me in the midst of a cluster of crises with friends though my own life was going well. The narrator tells the same story. She is strong despite the challenges faced by her friends and she makes a series of crucial decisions that protect her from going down “the rabbit hole” with them. As a caring helper, sometimes I have to make the decisions that keep me from ending up in the same circumstance – even if it seems cold. It is enough that I sit in the chaos and piss and watch the storm pass.

I do not know how long the song will be on my constant replay list, but for the time being it gets me through my daily struggle to remain human and be the best friend I can be to my friends.

 

Skyfall - the Song

Barely two days after it was released, when one searches for Adele’s “Skyfall” the first searches to come up are already comparing it to the list of James Bond theme songs over the last 50 years. Everyone has an opinion. Mine is that I love it so far.

It has been years since I remember the release of a Bond movie theme song being its own event. I have looked forward to the release since Adele mentioned in late spring that she had a song coming out in the fall. With no album in the works but the new Bond film scheduled for November speculation immediately suggested that she was singing the theme. This time the speculation proved accurate in dramatic fashion.

The opening horn blast lets one know from the onset that this is Bond. The opening lyric, “This is the end. Hold your breath and count to ten,” shows such a Bondian nature. He is always one wrong step away from death. Later in the song the requisite romance rears its head – or at least its lap. At the 1:50 mark, the horn riff takes off on a variation of the Bond theme. Anyone not knowing a Bond movie was set for near release knows then that the song is part of the franchise. The soaring melody and Adele’s smooth vocals have prepared me for the opening credits with dramatic moves pitting James Bond against his enemy of the episode. It takes me back to the days of the Playhouse Theater in Victoria where I saw Moonraker with its theme song in the opening scene and credits.

This is a song I want to hear with my earphones on. Take away everything else. Let me immerse myself in the drama.

How does it measure up against other James Bond theme songs? I have no idea and am somewhat annoyed at those who would rank it before the movie has been seen. I like what it does in setting up the movie. It makes me want to see the movie which I would otherwise likely wait for some kind of online streaming to see – if then. The Bond franchise, over 50 years, has offered some musical gems: “Goldfinger,” “Live and Let Die,” “Diamond are Forever,” “Moonraker,” “Nobody Does It Better,” “For Your Eyes Only” to name a few.

Ok, I was kidding about the last one. The Adele song certainly surpasses that pop drivel. Ultimately “Skyfall” will be judged by how it fits the movie as a whole. At least until the movie is released, I am going to enjoy the theatrical thrill its orchestration lets me have.

How Did That Get There?

I bought a new iPod for my recent road trip so I could download my entire music library to give myself the full range of music to match whatever mood I found myself in. Over the course of the trip, I made it through a variety of genres and in each one, more than once as an unfamiliar song began to play, I asked myself, “where did that come from?”

 

To be honest, I have not completely listened to much of the music in my library because I like free stuff. My 15.2+ days of music consists mostly of purchases I have made over the years – either digitally or on CD and transferred. Still there are a few dozen albums I raided off the free downloads on Amazon and other sources (LEGITIMATELY!).

 

The problem with most of the Amazon free downloads is that they are sampler albums from many smaller studios. Some of the artists they feature are quite good and may well make it into mainstream circulation at some point; however, far too many of the artists will never make it out of their garage. Most of the songs that made me scratch my head at how they came to be in my library came from these albums. One takes this risk with freebies.

 

Of course there are a few of the collections in the library that I listened to on repeat at one point and now wonder what I ever heard in the songs. Conversely, some of the collections have grown in favor with time. And of course there are the classic standbys that are as good today as when they came out.

 

I enjoy the way the standby classics transport me back to earlier events. Certain songs I hear transport me to high school while others take me back to the dorm at college. One in particular takes me to a San Antonio dance club in 1986 (I Wanna Be a Cowboy). The power of music never ceases to amaze me in the ways it can alter my mood, recall memories, and cement new experiences into memory that any other medium.

 

Free stuff is too alluring for me to resist, so I will continue to download the good, bad, and ugly as it becomes available. You never know when that rejected song will be the one most perfect for a special occasion.

 

Or which one will have me again scratching my head.

Old Men and Small Spaces

Sometimes the simplest task brings unexpected complications. My truck came with an auxiliary input, but it is not easily accessible. Still all one has to do is access the wire behind the dashboard. Previously a satellite radio receiver was connected to the input, but after it stopped working, I had nothing working through that access point.

With a lengthy road trip coming up, 12.1 days of music, and 4 days of pod casts in my iTunes library, I have no need to spend my trip scrolling through unpredictable broadcast radio stations when I can make a custom playlist to play each way on the trip. Having all of this in mind, I decided to connect my iPod to the auxiliary input. All I needed was to plug it in, right?

The access panel came of easily and the access to the system was clear. I just had to work my way up under the dash to reach all the wires and move them to a point where I can connect everything. On my first reach I discovered that old men and small spaces do not go well together. To get my arm where it needed to go I had to twist around, grasp the wire, and pull it down.

Twist. Grasp. Pull. Forty-five-year-olds cannot do that without proper warm-ups.

I felt and heard the muscle pull and wondered for a bit whether I would be able to even get out from under my dash. I began to consider how long it would be before a neighbor came by to pull me out. After taking a few deep breaths, I managed to slide out and make it inside to my recliner.

Almost a day later finds me still in my recliner. Fortunately with cloud technology, I am able to work from home and not get too far behind. I am still not convinced that is a good thing, but on days like today when I feel fine but simply cannot move, I think it is a good thing. Especially since I hope to take a day off later in the week to make my road trip.

But to finish the installation of the iPod kit, I think will require a trip to an audio shop with younger people crawling into the tight spaces.

Free Black Friday!

Black Friday for me involved staying home avoiding the masses, and other than looking for a food disposal to replace mine which stopped working the day before Thanksgiving, I did not even begin to shop for the holidays. I have not yet decided what to get anyone for Christmas this year, so I guess I better start shopping soon. I did however purchase a few days of pure pleasure for me on Amazon. iTunes has free songs each week. Amazon music has free songs AND entire free albums.

Most of the free albums on Amazon are music samplers from various music publishers, but so far, everything I have downloaded from classical to world music has been music that I would listen to at length. While the process can be a bit tedious and the system does not warn you when you have already purchased (grabbed, snatched, taken) an album which sometimes leads to a double download of a particular selection, it can easily be cleaned up after they make their way into iTunes with the display duplicates function. Since my Black Friday raid on the free music on Amazon, I have been listening to a variety of artists I likely would never have experienced.

Which is exactly what the free music push-outs on iTunes and Amazon would like.

I like some new artists I probably would not have sought out on my own, but now that I am familiar with them, I am much more likely to search out something they have for sale on one of the music sites.

I have not played with the Amazon cloud player enough yet, but have played with the iTunes program enough to know that I like having a wide variety of music available at nearly any time. It comes in handy at work when I cannot count on otherwise streaming music to fill my office and have to rely on the radio.

Fortunately there is a classical music station I pick up most of the time.

Not long ago, I relied on the radio for the majority of my musical exposure, but in the last six years, I have hardly listened to commercial music. With friends posting music on social media, the period of time I had satellite radio, and now with the streaming music sources, I hardly turn on the radio more than to get my daily news fix in the morning and evenings.

I am happy with the much broader variety of music I get now than ever before – and the much broader selection than I can get from the broadcast stations in Austin. Honestly, I cannot slam them too much because I have not listened to them in such a long time, I could not tell you the format of any but the local NPR station and local classical music station. I stopped listening to them for a reason, and the few times I have turned  one or the other on, I heard nothing new that made me want to come back on a regular basis.

For the time being, I am going to continue taking advantage of the music to which I have access via social media, streaming music stations, and the other random sources.

And I’m going to continue growing my music library whenever I can.

Mr. Popular

My schedule worked out to my advantage today as I was in my office for an extended time when the ACL tickets went on sale and I was able to get in the “virtual line” in plenty of time to actually purchase tickets for the 2011 festival, some eleven months away. While waiting in the virtual line (because it was still a line) I had a 1-on-1 conference with one of the teachers in the program I direct, composed an email for everyone in a different program I also direct, and contacted two outside agencies regarding data another district program needed for part of its annual report.

Yet in the middle of all that, I managed to notice when the screen changed and I pounced on my opportunity for “discounted” tickets.

I had no idea how popular that would make me.

Within the hour of tweeting (aka sideways Facebook posting) my purchase, I had received a call with an offer to buy some of my tickets and other Facebook notifications with offers.

If I had known purchasing tickets would make me Mr. Popular, I would buy tickets much more often!

For the time being, I’m hanging on to the tickets. Heck, they are just electronic imaginings with dollar signs attached to my American Express card until I claim them next September.

That’s when the competition really begins to see who is(are) my best friend(s)!

The Other Lyrics

I know there is at least one book dedicated to frequent misinterpretations of lyrics (He’s Got the Whole World In His Pants). Some of them are so funny you wonder how anyone every thought that could be what a singer was saying, others though, are better than the original lyrics.

Tonight while steaming in the shower to try to open up some sinus congestion, I was doing what I so often do in the shower - sing. Everything in the relationship with R has been so good lately, I was singing, “Love is Many Splendored Thing” (from the 1955 film by the same name) when I was interrupted by a coughing fit as some of the lovely mucus broke loose. It sounded more like, “love is a many splintered thing.”

Between fits of laughter and fits of coughing, I tried singing it that way, and it really works.

In some ways, it’s just as true as the original lyrics, but I’m much happier to keep love splendored than splintered.

Trapped in Hymnland

This is my story. This is my song.

I just wish it were not my song in the middle of the night.

A classmate came into class today screeching one of my favorite hymns. Someone else asked what the song was, as she did not recognize it, so I sang a few bars so she would know it.

Since then a medley of classic hymns has filled my mind. More than just filled, as tune flowed from tune, my mind began to process the connections between the old hymns that they could pour out in such a constant manner without pause. That consideration put me on a search of tune composers to see how many of the hymns in my growing medley the same person composed. And that led me to my iTunes library to listen to some compositions a contemporary musician has created from phrases of hymns by some of the most prolific composers of the last century.

Meanwhile, I am listening to the latest cd from Moby. So far, the very contemporary alternative music has done nothing to move my humming away from 18th and 19th century church anthems.

That actually makes a tremendous amount of sense to me personally. The same hymns I am singing now are the ones that I grew up with in childhood and that I often turn to in times of stress. Whenever my back starts to spasm from tension, I sing hymns.

To be fair to the world, most of the time I sing them inside my own head. When I am certain I am alone I sing aloud: I sing a lot; I sing loudly; I just don’t sing well. As a result, I have tried to protect the world from my singing.

Whether sung aloud or silently, though, the old hymns bring a greater sense of comfort than the more modern melodies. So many of the modern praise tunes do more to create a mesmerized cultish atmosphere than to create an internalized sense of worship as the classically inspired songs of old do. As a non-musician, I cannot pinpoint the term, but I know the older songs contain a level of richness and depth not found in the contemporary worship songs.

The older songs call my soul to a place the newer songs have never let me reach.

The greatest complaint I have with the new songs is that they preach to me and never make me find the meaning; they tell me exactly what it is they want me to know. The old hymns bring one to a point of spirituality that opens one for a revelatory experience. The state of openness offers the chance for one to discover one’s own message rather than be hammered over the head with someone else’s message.

Now with all the hymns circling through my head, I am just thankful that “there is a song I love to hear” until “it is well with my soul.”

Country Music Strikes Again

Country music has a long and well earned reputation for titles and lyrics that state the obvious in a way only a country mama could love. The Roy Clark classic, “Thank God and Greyhound She’s Gone” managed to pay homage to the Good Lord and the cheapest form of mass transit at the time – and it even managed to get in a sideways reference to dogs.

One of the factors that makes country music so funny is that you can actually understand the lyrics. Rock protects itself by being unintelligible or we would have as many laughs there. Hip-hop just creates new slang with every song so the filler between gratuitous profanity makes absolutely no sense to anyone without the current day’s version of the Urban Dictionary.

A contemporary Joe Nichols song comes close to matching the standard of the greats like Roy Clark. His song, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” leaves little to the imagination and takes all the work from the rest of the lyrics. Still, by the time he is done describing all the clothes she loses, before she takes her first shot she would have been ready for a stroll along the lakefront in Chicago during January.

Nichols also has the song “She Only Smokes When She Drinks.” With him as a boyfriend, she’s going to have lung cancer soon or spontaneously combust depending on which angle he was taking with the smoking reference.

If she’s the same girl whose clothes fall off, then she probably has no tan line, but terrible smoker’s mouth.

Meanwhile Steve Holy demonstrates that he is anything but with his song, “Brand New Girlfriend.” He enjoys the beach with her while wearing nothing but smiles and playing “kissy kissy smoochie smoochie” while talking “mushy mushy about nothing.”

Maybe that’s why I don’t have a boyfriend: I’m good at “kissy kissy smoochie smoochie,” but I just don’t do “mushy mushy nothing” well.

Holy’s ex-girlfriend didn’t do the mushy well either. She got serious a bit and that’s why she’s his ex.

I need to learn to do mushy, but I don’t even know where to begin since those who do it to me instantly get on my last nerve – not that they have to go through to many to get there. I don’t have the vocabulary for sweet nothings. Is there any kind of Urban Dictionary for nothings?

I’ll just listen to politicians – that will get me started on nothing.

Bjork...why?

Ok…I know Bjork is coming to town in September as one of the headliners for the Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival – but there I just don’t think I can make it. I can’t listen to more than two of her songs in a row without having to switch to a different playlist.

Sorry, Bjork fans…but why? Gimme Joss Stone anyday!

Encountering My "Personal Jesus"

In the last month I encountered the song “Personal Jesus” in three remarkably distinct formats. The original Depeche Mode version written by Martin Gore of the group remains one of my favorite songs from the period. Despite being a part of the original electronic music movement and something of a satire of televangelism, the song still represents Jesus in a Christian manner, though the mode of accessing him is certainly not.

A few weeks ago, I purchased American IV: The Man Comes Around which is one of Johnny Cash’s last recording sessions. He covers broad genres of music from the late twentieth century on the American cds, and one of the songs that may surprise country aficionados is “Personal Jesus.” Cash’s baritone captures both the longing for a savior of a lost man and the genuine (smarmy) appeal of the televangelist as though he is the preacher on the other end of the line. The pastor’s plea heard through the line, “reach out and touch faith” almost begs the caller to reach out and save him.

Not long after purchasing, American IV, I broke down and bought The Complete Depeche Mode – 644 songs for under $200 on iTunes is not such a bad deal. One of the selling points to the collection is that it included singles and remixes of Depeche Mode songs. After listening to some of the remixes, I don’t know how we managed to dance in the 80’s. The songs didn’t even last four minutes –we were net able to even get warmed up. Many of the remixes last seven to ten minutes and make the original song sound like a dirge.

There are several remixes of “Personal Jesus” found in The Complete Depeche Mode. The acoustic version comes across almost as hauntingly as the Johnny Cash cover, but the boys of Depeche Mode need to stick to their electronic work. Some of the titles to the remixes pay appropriate homage to the song: “Kazan Cathedral Mix,” “Holier Than Thou Approach,” and “Telephone Stomp Mix” all by their title respect the original tune. Each of them, of course, has its own driving beat and I could still dance to them – but I think the memories going through my head would be more high school, so this 40-year-old better be careful what moves he makes.

My personal neighbors, if the speakers have been loud enough, have heard enough “Personal Jesus” in the last few days that I’m certain their souls are well saved. That which I lack in musical skill, I make up for in musical appreciation. I have replayed, skipped through, and switched back and forth through the many different arrangements of the song. I have spent enough time with “Jesus” that I should have made a decision by now, but I’m still examining which version I want to be my “Personal Jesus.”

The Perfect Mix

With apologies to Avenue Q:

“A mix cd.

I made a mix cd.”

Or is it:

“A mix playlist.

I made a mix playlist.”

None of those have the ring of “mix tape!” Maybe it’s just because I’m a kid of the ‘80s when piracy involved trying to hit the record button before the song started on the radio.

Now with iTunes and other such online services, we just click “purchase” and our bank account grows a little bit smaller as our music library increases.

One drawback to this since I rarely buy a whole cd anymore (really I don’t despite the three reviews I’ve done here earlier) is how to put the songs together into the perfect mix cd or playlist. I don’t envy D.J.’s trying to balance bpm (beats per minute) with style and variety of artists, etc. They have a real job doing that.

I remix my collections constantly. I don’t trust my iPod to do the right mix for a five mile run or an eight hour drive.

And I like some odd mixes – yes, you can run to classical music! And electronica. And metal.

Country, though, is a little iffy.

I have almost three days worth of music in iTunes at this point. Last night I visited with a friend who has twenty-five days of music. Yes, that is correct – twenty-five days! I don’t know if I could ever make a mix from that much selection. My brain nearly exploded from the choices as I scrolled down the pages and pages and pages of music: “Which Carpenters? Which Clash? Which James Brown?” Short circuit, my brain would.

My search for the perfect mix continues. If you see me jogging around Town Lake with my iPod, then you will know I’m getting close to it since I rarely run with music.