Disaster Area

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from David Crowder and a few thousand fans...

Top Christmas Songs

Gen Y bitching about Baby Boomers again...

Missed Santa Baby, there...

Bonnie and I were listening to a Pandora Christmas station laste weekend and sure enough this was the playlist, very noticeable because of the repetition. Which got us to thinking about the "new" original (not remakes or reinterpretations) Christmas standards, if there have been any, since the fifties, particularly from the eighties on. Pickings are pretty slim, but I did manage to come up with a few that at least get occasional radio play this time of year.

The list so far:

Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? great song, thought provoking

Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas a personal favorite, great song (and a mini Prokofiev revival) and a call for less commercialism at Christmas - winner all round

Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

Elton John - Step Into Christmas

Wham - Last Christmas

What would you add to the list?

 

Amy Winehouse Dead - Wow

It was all too easy to make fun of her, what with her amazing propensity for self-destruction and numerous trips to rehab, but it's still sad to see this happen. RIP

Risky Business and Tangerine Dream

Just watched the 1983 movie for the first time on a long time and marveled at the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. Sure, the Bob Seger track Old Time Rock and Roll is the signature moment, but Tangerine Dream set the tone for the whole movie. In many ways it rivals Princess Bride for best mood setter.

Hipster Anthem

I (heart) Kate Bush and Pi

Listening to Aerial today I stumbled once again across this track:

Sweet and gentle sensitive man
With an obsessive nature and deep fascination
For numbers
And a complete infatuation with the calculation
Of PI

Oh he love, he love, he love
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity

3.1415926535 897932
3846 264 338 3279

Oh he love, he love, he love
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity
But he must, he must, he must
Put a number to it

50288419 716939937510
582319749 44 59230781
6406286208 821 4808651 32

Oh he love, he love, he love
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity

82306647 0938446095 505 8223…

Just remember - mathematicians say pi r squared, but everyone really knows pie are round.

Total Eclipse of the Concert

One of the last remaining Christmas presents was a trip into Seattle to see Sarah McLachlan and Friends tonight. No, she wasn't performing with Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe and Monica, just with Butterfly Boucher (rhymes with voucher), along with wife and husband Melissa McLelland and Luke Doucet.

The format was brilliant - instead of the usual opening band schtick, the guests (the latter two of which have been backing band members before) were integrated into the evening, so at 8:03 pm we kicked of with Sarah herself. The guests got feature spots a few times during the evening and were mostly excellent, with the possible exception of BB's depressing song written in the North of England when she was particularly depressed.  Even that was only meh, rather than outright bad.

The stage, sound and lighting were incredibly good. Sarah's voice continues to be amazing, and she can sing the vast majority of her repertoire live just as well as any studio recording. Her voice was crystal clear and beautiful on most songs. To be honest, I haven't been keeping close tabs on her career of late, so Laws of Illusion kind of passed me by last year. The songs from it were ok, never bad, but the high points for me were definitely the pre-2000 material. Hold On was simply brilliant. It's amazing to think a 20-something year old could come up with such an emotionally intense yet mature song about loss.

Sarah's first couple of albums were stellar, but often ignored live, so it was very nice to hear Path of Thorns - I think it suprised her how good it is in retrospect.

The highlight, though, was Possession, which ended the main part of the concert. Peter Stroud rocked the house on lead from one side, with Luke Doucet adding on from the other, while Butterfly Boucher kicked in with the amazing bass lines. Vince Jones keyboards were vital, of course. Maybe it's  because Possession was the first Sarah McLachlan song I ever heard (the ultra hard rock version from the rare CD single) bit this was easily the high point of the evening (but not, apparently, for the potheads around us for whom the entire evening was the high point...)

The encore was lower key, with Angel (well received) and Ice Cream (ok singalong) which ended with Sarah improvising notes and ending with one terrible off key note - the only one of the night, really - that cracked her up nd precipitated the end to the song and the evening.

So, overall, an A+ for Sarah and a solid A for everyone else.

Oh, the eclipse? The guy in front of me was maybe 6' 4" with a giant planetoid of a head (I swear it had it's own ecosystem) so Isaw the entire concert with my head tilted to one side or the other trying to see the stage. I did think of complaining, but what can you say? "Shrink your head, buddy, it's eclipsing my view of the stage"? Oh well...

 

RIP John Barry

Bond movies will be forever part of my generations collective psyche, so it is with great sadness to see that John Barry died today. Monty Norman wrote the Bond theme (and is older and still with us), but John Barry was as important in turning it into the iconic piece that it is.

RIP Gerry Rafferty

I didn't know he was born in Paisley. He should have made my top ten list, but somehow he didn't. Consider this a much overdue honorary addition.

Gerry Rafferty's City to City album is one of the finest ever made. Not just for Baker Street which was, and remains, a joy. No there's a raft of other great songs on there that have an easy going charm and wit. I think my favorite track is Right Down the Line.

You know I need your love, you got that hold over me
As long as I got your love, you know that I’ll never leave
When I wanted you to share my life, I had no doubt in my mind
And it’s been you, woman, right down the line.

I know how much I lean on you, only you can see
The changes that I’ve been through have left their mark on me
You’ve been as constant as the Northern Star, the brightest light that shines
It’s been you, woman, right down the line.

I just wanna say this is my way
Of telling you everything I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of telling you that everyday I’m loving you (so much more)

‘Cause you believed in me through my darkest night
Put something better inside of me, you brought me into the light
Threw away all those crazy dreams, I put them all behind
And it was you, woman, right down the line.

I just wanna say this is my way
Of telling you everything I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of telling you that everyday I’m loving you (so much more)

If I should doubt myself, if I’m losing ground
I won’t turn to someone else, they’d only let me down
When I wanted you to share my life, I had no doubt in my mind
And it’s been you, woman, right down the line.

Africa A Cappella

Just watched this with friends again...