The year of 2016 has taken many of the music scene’s greatest. Prince, David Bowie and Glenn Frey just to name a few taken too soon. Now, George Michael joins his musical brethren as news of his passing on Christmas Day was announced and confirmed.
There’s not much to say other than any kid growing up during the late 80’s knew and listened to George Michael in some capacity or another. While he became famous as part of the British boy band WHAM! it was when he branched out on his own as a solo act that he hit megastar status. His solo debut album, Faith, would reach multi-platinum levels and each single released from the album and each video that ran in circulation on MTV would become instant hits.
My favorite song of his and this goes to his many excellent post-modern videos, would be the third single released from his debut album, “Father Figure.”.
Father Figure
That’s all I wanted
Something special, something sacred
In your eyes
For just one moment
To be bold and naked
At your side
Sometimes I think that you’ll never
Understand me (understand me)
Maybe this time is forever
Say it can be, woah
That’s all you wanted
Something special, someone sacred
In your life
Just for one moment
To be warm and naked
At my side
Sometimes I think that you’ll never
Understand me (understand me)
But something tells me together
We’d be happy, woah baby
I will be your father figure (oh baby)
Put your tiny hand in mine (I’d love to)
I will be your preacher teacher (be your daddy)
Anything you have in mind (it would make me)
I will be your father figure (very happy)
I have had enough of crime (please let me)
I will be the one who loves you
Till the end of time
That’s all I wanted
But sometimes love can be mistaken
For a crime
That’s all I wanted
Just to see my baby’s
Blue-eyed shine
This time I think that my lover
Understands me (understands me)
If we have faith in each other
Then we can be strong, baby
I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine (my baby)
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind
I will be your father figure
I have had enough of crime
I will be the one who loves you
Till the end of time
If you are the desert, I’ll be the sea
If you ever hunger, hunger for me
Whatever you ask for, that’s what I’ll be
So when you remember the ones who have lied
Who said that they cared
But then laughed as you cried
Beautiful darling
Don’t think of me
Because all I ever wanted
It’s in your eyes
Baby, baby
And love can’t lie, no
(Greet me with the eyes of a child)
My love is always telling me so (Heaven is a kiss and a smile)
Just hold on, hold on
And won’t let you go, my baby
I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind
I will be your father figure
And I have had enough of crime
So I am gonna love you
Till the end of time
(I will be your father) I will be your (I will be your preacher) Father (I will be your father) I’ll be your daddy, whoa
I will be the one who loves you
Till the end of time
While still looking to finish up my review of the latest entry in The Fast & The Furious franchise I thought it best to just put up the song which has led to many a-filmgoer trapped in a box of their emotions and feels.
Everyone by now knows how the release of Furious 7 has a tinge of both sentimentality and bittersweet emotions as this was the final film filmed by Paul Walker before his untimely death in late 2013. The shadow of Walker’s death had cast a shadow over the film. Whether people thought the film was good or not became a sidenote as the filmmakers, actors and everyone involved gave Paul Walker a moving final tribute by film’s end.
“See You Again” brings back Wiz Khalifa who also contributed what would become the theme song for Fast and Furious 6 with “Ride or Die.” This time Wiz has Charlie Puth doing the chorus. The combination of Puth’s heartfelt vocals and Khalifa’s rhymes made for a moving musical tribute to one of the founders of the The Fast & The Furious franchise and to a close friend to all involved in it.
See You Again
Charlie Puth)
It’s been a long day without you my friend
And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
We’ve come a long way from where we began
Oh I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
(Wiz Khalifa)
Damn who knew all the planes we flew
Good things we’ve been through
That I’ll be standing right here
Talking to you about another path I
Know we loved to hit the road and laugh
But something told me that it wouldn’t last
Had to switch up look at things different see the bigger picture
Those were the days hard work forever pays now I see you in a better place
How could we not talk about family when family’s all that we got?
Everything I went through you were standing there by my side
And now you gonna be with me for the last ride
(Charlie Puth)
It’s been a long day without you my friend
And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
We’ve come a long way from where we began
Oh I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
when I see you again
(Wiz Khalifa)
First you both go out your way
And the vibe is feeling strong and what’s
Small turn to a friendship a friendship
Turn into a bond and that bond will never Be broke and the love will never get lost
And when brotherhood come first then the line
Will never be crossed established it on our own
When that line had to be drawn and that line is what
We reach so remember me when I’m gone
How could we not talk about family when family’s all that we got?
Everything I went through you were standing there by my side
And now you gonna be with me for the last ride
(Charlie Puth)
So let the light guide your way hold every memory
As you go and every road you take will always lead you home
It’s been a long day without you my friend
And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
We’ve come a long way from where we began
Oh I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
A rock legend passed away today. Joe Cocker had one of those very unique voices which most everyone recognized. A blues and soul rock singer who performed with some of the rock legends of the 60’s and 70’s, he would become a mainstream hit with songs such as “Up Where We Belong” and his covers of Beatles songs.
It was in 1975, covering a ballad written and composed by Billy Preston, Bruce Fisher and Dennis Wilson that he truly burst into the mainstream scene. The song was “You Are So Beautiful” and while the album it was a part of never truly took off the single itself reached No. 5 on the Billboards chart of that year.
Cocker’s version was much slower in tempo than the original song and this worked well in concert with his gritty, bluesy voice where each word and lyric felt full of emotion that blues and soul singers have become well-known for.
Joe Cocker might have faded away from the mainstream consciousness after the 80’s but rock and blues aficionados always remembered and admired him right down to his last days.
Time for the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame to heed the words of Billy Joel and induct the man in it’s hallowed halls. He’s more than earned it.
You Are So Beautiful
You are so beautiful to me You are so beautiful to me Can’t you see Your everything I hoped for Your everything I need You are so beautiful to me
Such joy and happiness you bring Such joy and happiness you bring Like a dream A guiding light that shines in the night Heavens gift to me You are so beautiful to me
“So we whisper a dream here in the darkness Watching the stars til they’re gone And when even the memories have all faded away These days go on and on”
We’ve finally reached the end of 27 Days of Old School and I think it appropriate that I choose a heartwarming and life-affirming song from 1994 by the incomparable Vanessa Williams.
While Madonna courted controversy on the other side of the ledger was the classic beauty and soulful talent that was Vanessa Williams. She may not have had the mega-success that Madonna had in the music business, but she still left quite a mark on her own terms.
She’s been on top of the charts as an R&B and pop singer. She really hit her stride with her second full-length album which includes the memorable ballad “Save The Best For Last”. She would follow this ballad with “The Sweetest Days” which is also the name of her third album.
While she hasn’t been making music these past years she has branched out into becoming a successful actress both on the big and small screen and even doing some time on Broadway.
So, for those who feel down and out and who think the world is crashing down around and on them I recommend they sit down, relax and listen to this song. It might just help lift things up even if just a bit.
“‘Cause I know in my heart That my life ends and starts with you”
It took almost til the end but we finally get some New Edition in here.
Yes, it’s hard to talk about old school music without mentioning the premiere boy band (though pretty much grown ass men by the time of this song) of the 1980’s right up to the start of the 90’s.
Whether it was their first album when they were actually teens to their follow-up when they replaced Bobby Brown with Johnny Gill right up to the time of this song when the band brought Bobby Brown back to make it a six-man group, the group has always been the go-to R&B group. For those younger generation who grew up on One Direction and earlier than that with Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, this group was our version of that and they were real and spectacular.
“I’m Still In Love With You” was sort of their last major hit which came out in 1995. A year that I’ve arbitrarily picked as the end of the Golden Age of Old School music (hey, it’s my list so there). It’s an R&B pop ballad that’s classic New Edition.
Pushing the line of what constitutes old school for me would be when the 1990’s started to move into the mid-1990’s. I was still young enough to remember high school, but already a couple years from having graduated from it in 1994. One of the last few old school songs that made the cut for this list was the one song where I fully bought into Madonna as an artist and not just a great performer.
“Take A Bow” was a single off of her Bedtime Stories album and it couldn’t be more opposite from her previous work. For one thing, it was written by R&B producer extraordinaire Babyface.
The video for this song was a nice touch in using the bullring in Antequera, Spain as the set with Madonna channeling golden age glam. Definitely not the sort of look her fans have been used to for years before this album.
It works as a ballad and the video itself turned out to be a nice short film that help tell the story behind the lyrics.
I’m not sure how much this song was played over and over by heartbroken teens during my high school years but I will guess that it would top a million easy.
“Seasons Change” by the group Exposé comes in at 11 on our “27 Days of Old School” countdown. The group itself was one of the big names during the freestyle and dance-pop scene during the 80’s, but surprisingly this song was their only No. 1 hit. It just goes to show the power of the ballad and this one became of the the go-to songs for teens (probably college age ones as well) during my days.
It’s actually a pretty downbeat song considering it’s about how couples break up not due to any one major falling out, but due to drifting apart because of time and changes.
For teens who fell in love with this song it became a sort of theme song whenever they broke up with their first, second and upteenth true love. I know that as much as school dances love their slow songs this was rarely played during.
This is the song that ushered me from junior high and straight into high school. Again, much of the music that kids my of my age in 1986 just fell in love with The Jets’ ballad “You Got It All”.
There was something very earnest about this song even for a kid. There’s nothing cynical about the message in the lyrics and it helps that the group’s lead vocalist, Elizabeth Wolfgramm, just killed it. Here’s the kicker….Elizabeth was just 12-years old when she sang this song with the rest of the group (literally her brothers and sisters). Even 28 years since having first heard of this song it still resonates in this cynical man’s heart.
“You Got It All” definitely brings back fond memories of being a kid and just entering those teenage years when anything was possible. I don’t want to be that cliched old man who rails against the music of today’s youth, but one must admit that this song from The Jets has more heart and soul than most of what kids these days are listening to.
Now, you kids get off my porch while I listen to my stories!
But you shouldn’t have been looking at that. You should have been looking at the two words surrounding it, because it suggests something we haven’t heard much of in quite a while. Beginning with Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 1, Atsuo Mizuno, Takeshi Ohtani, and Wata have spent a lot of time playing at pop stars. Their really quality works of late have mostly been pop oriented, and in the world of metal they’ve been mostly playing around. Heavy Rocks 2011 felt like a joke–a quick fun studio session to take some of the stress off of recording New Album and Attention Please. Präparat offered us the total mindfuck known as “Elegy”, but “Method of Error” and “Bataille Suere” could hardly be taken seriously. We got the long-overdue Boris performing “flood” and a rerelease of The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked, but that wasn’t new material.
Boris deserved a break from their old traditions. Christ, they have 78 releases to their name, and like 95% of that has been beyond fabulous. But as good as their pop and chillout sounds of late have been, we’ve all been itching for some good old Boris noise. Not Absolutego drone. I mean I want to hear some “Heavy Friends”, some “Akuma No Uta”, some “Farewell”, some “My Neighbor Satan”, something to make my brain turn inside out and hug itself. Well, Boris did deliver. They did it last year, in the easily overlooked The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Extra. In fact, it was so easily overlooked that I am only just now skimming through its tracks for the first time! I can already tell it is awesome, but that will have to wait. Tonight I spin Noise for the first time.
Boris – Melody, from Noise
If you are a Boris fan, this opening track needs no commentary. I suppose no track on the album does, really. But if you are not a Boris fan, picture yourself in our shoes for a minute: You have ridiculous, irrationally high expectations for this album. You can justify it, because the band has never let you down before. But you don’t have a clue what’s in store for you. The graceful drone in the opening 40 seconds could go on for the entire track, and it would not be out of character. Suddenly we’ve got a pretty, shoegaze guitar, and for a brief six or seven seconds your mind wonders whether they might be trying something akin to Alcest. At 47 seconds, a techno beat comes in, and we are on pace for something totally novel. Is it going to be some weird psychedelic technogaze? I wouldn’t put it past them, and I just might like it. But things are picking up… something is about to give….. and bam, at the 1 minute mark Boris unleashes everything I could have ever hoped for and more.
Takeshi slamming out a crushing stoner metal groove under Wata’s wailing blur of blissful noise, and in five seconds we find that techno beat wasn’t just an intro. What IS this amalgamation of mutually exclusive genre standards into an inexplicably majestic whole? This is Boris, doing what Boris always do: taking everything they’ve done before and making it even better. This is a band that remains totally aware of everything going on in music at large and has had twenty three years playing together to master their class. Wata has one of the most beatiful guitar sounds in the world. She slides around the neck with a grace that puts Billy Corgan to shame and rocks the effect pedals so keenly that “Paranoid Android” sounds amateur. Atsuo drums with a persistent intensity that rivals Jimmy Chamberlin (I’ve always felt a bizarre connection between Boris and The Smashing Pumpkins–two bands that defy all categorization.) Takeshi’s mastery of bass and distortion is as good as any stoner band on the market, and his vocal control has come miles from Smile and earlier works.
Stonergaze techno pop? Yeah, we can do that.
Boris – Vanilla, from Noise
The next track, “Vanilla”, is just as fascinating. For the first 40 seconds (55 in the official video) we get a vocal melody and beat that wouldn’t have been out of place in a mid-90s up-tempo rock track–it bizarrely made me think of the Foo Fighters–layered of course with Wata and Takeshi’s constant motion. Then we hit a deep, brooding pause with haunting synth, doomy bass crunch, and a spooky arpeggio loop that says this song is going nowhere near where we expected. The song quickly move back into rock mode, but now we’re expecting something. The guitars embrace a rhythmic metal crunch, and the hard shift to a bassy stoner/doom beatdown for six notes at 1:20 (1:35) makes your brain jitter. No other band would even THINK to do something like that. We’re back into the opening motion, then another break and… is Takeshi playing a death metal riff? Mmhmm. And it’s not like the trashy games they were playing on Heavy Rocks 2011 and a few Präparat tracks. It’s fully immersed and totally appropriate. Wata goes wild, and I am in bliss.
Boris – Heavy Rain, from Noise
I could narrate every track on this album and never be at a loss for commentary. “Ghost of Romance” might offer the fewest surprises–a traditional Boris chillout song with a pensive undercurrent brought to life with haunting guitar tones and a breath effect that suit the title. It offers a modest post-rock build-up to louder levels of chill, but never at the expensive of a full break from the main vibe of the song. “Heavy Rain”, my personal favorite on first listen, virtually demands you crank the speakers up to 11. Despite the tempo never changing and Takeshi’s heaviest tones coming out within the first minute, this song accomplishes a mindblowing progression. They manage to accomplish the build-up in reverse, putting forth a bunch of sound at once and increasing the suspense by slowly peeling it back. The moment we reach the point of dead silence, the explosion hits, and the rest is all driven by Wata’s ever-growing layers of noise and Atsuo’s knack for making every single percussion count.
“Taiyo No Baka” is a bizarre, sugary, initially minimalistic pop ditty that should confound anyone unfamiliar with the band. But far from filler, it’s quite delightful and has a lot of really interesting effects going on throughout. If I am going to keep the Pumpkins comparisons rolling, this might equate to Mellon Collie‘s move from “X.Y.U.” to “We Only Come Out at Night”. “Angel” is the traditional post-rock track of the album, with six minutes of minimalistic build-up to a crushing guitar plod spiced with Atsuo’s hyper-intense slow drumming and a crooning Wata solo. This in turn serves as build-up to a spirited, meaty rock-out at 9:30 peppered by a highly mobile bass line and some good old post-rock tremolo. We’ve still got over 7 minutes to go as this part winds down, and the rest of the track plays out with a lot of eclectic, melodic experimentation that has to stand among Boris’s best. I’ll be surprised if “Angel” doesn’t grow into my favorite track on the album once I’ve given it a good dozen listens.
Boris – Quicksilver, from Noise
“Quicksilver”, the second to last track, might be where Noise gets its name. Dirty, wild crust with classic tremolo solos encase a sad and pleasing heavy punk chorus. Takeshi’s sung vocals run totally counter to what you might expect in this style of music, and Atsuo’s accompanying screams are out of this world. This is only the beginning. The song is ten minutes long, and while I’ll humor the possibility that it does drag on without much variation at times–it could go on for an hour and I wouldn’t complain–this is the most punk song Boris has pumped out in years. I would die if I saw them play it live–possibly literally. At 6:20, the main thrust of the song climaxes with a monotone tremolo wail, a crusty three chord repeat from Takeshi, and a total Atsuo explosion that for all its collective simplicity doesn’t sound quite like anything I’ve ever heard in metal before. The last 3 minutes of the song are weird to the point of being a little creepy–totally out of character with the seven minutes preceding them and featuring a bubbling static sound that makes your hair stand on end.
The closing track is “Siesta”, and I have to think it was inspired by Atsuo and Michio Kurihara’s recent collaboration with Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))) and Bill Herzog: Ensemble Pearl. It’s a slow, echoed, jazzy chill-out that wraps Noise up nicely. I would feature it here, but I couldn’t find a version on youtube.
So what do I think of this album? Do you even need to ask? It’s everything I could hope for. Sure, it doesn’t offer a killer stand-alone track like “Elegy” from Präparat or “Farewell” from Pink, but it just feels so complete. There is absolutely zero twiddling around, zero wasted time, just 58 action-packed minutes of every technique and style Boris has incorporated into their sound across their illustrious 23 year history. It is a really mature work–perhaps their most mature album to date–and I think it’s the most start-to-finish shear brilliance they have offered on a full-length cd since at least Akuma No Uta–maybe even since Flood. It doesn’t get much more original and imaginative than this.
One of the great classic R&B songs also happens to be today’s late “Song of the Day.”
The song “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5 is not just a great song but also reminds us that, through all the scandal and absurdity which that became Michael Jackson’s adulthood, he was a great singer and performer and none more so than when he was fronting his band of brothers.
I also picked this song for another reason that seems so out of left field (which it is), but also fit in so perfectly to end two hours of an enjoyable time at the cinemas. James Gunn had personally picked the classic 70’s songs that would be part of mixtape for Guardians of the Galaxy. One such song is The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and it’s use and timely appearance in the film also marks one of it’s most adoring sequences.
I know for a fact that site co-founder Lisa Marie Bowman will love not just this song but the scene it gets attached too.
I Want You Back
Let me tell you now
When I had you to myself I didn’t want you around Those pretty faces always made you Stand out in a crowd
But someone picked you from the bunch One glance was all it took Now it’s much too late for me To take a second look
Oh baby, give me one more chance (To show you that I love you) Won’t you please let me Back in your heart
Oh darling, I was blind to let you go (Let you go, baby) But now since I see you in his arms (I want you back)
Yes I do now (I want you back) Ooh, ooh baby (I want you back) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (I want you back) Na na na na
Trying to live without your love Is one long sleepless night Let me show you, girl That I know wrong from right
Every street you walk on I leave tear stains on the ground Following the girl I didn’t even want around Let me tell you now
Oh baby, all I need is one more chance (To show you that I love you) Won’t you please let me Back in your heart
Oh darlin’, I was blind to let you go (Let you go baby) But now since I see you in his arms, uh huh
A buh buh buh buh A buh buh buh buh All I want A buh buh buh buh All I need A buh buh buh buh All I want A buh buh buh buh All I need
Oh, just one more chance To show you that I love you Baby (baby), baby (baby), baby (baby)
(I want you back) Forget what happened then And let me live again
Oh baby, I was blind to let you go But now since I see you in his arms (I want you back) Spare me of this cause Gimme back what I lost
Oh baby, I need one more chance, ha I tell ya that I love you Baby, ow, baby, baby I want you back I want you back