To be honest, there is really only one reason why Spirit In The Sky is today’s song of the day and that’s that it happens to be so very stuck in my head! I’ve seen the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy a few dozen times and I now not only hear Spirit in the Sky when I close my eyes but I also end up picturing a surly raccoon walking down a hallway with a tree-like creature that repeatedly says, “I am Groot.”
And that’s not a bad thing at all!
Believe it or not, before I sat down to write this post, I actually did some research on the origin of the song. And, of course, by research I mean that I looked the song up on Wikipedia and read the first half of the article. Spirit in the Sky was written, recorded, and first released in 1969. Norman Greenbaum mostly wrote it as a challenge to himself, to see if he, despite knowing nothing about gospel music, could write a gospel song. As for the song’s distinctive “beep beep” fills, they were the result of a last minute improvisation by guitarist Russell Dashiell. The end result, of course, was the world’s first psychedelic gospel song.
Finally, before Greenbaum recorded Spirit in The Sky, he apparently had a hit song called The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.
And who knows? Maybe that song will be featured in the trailer for the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy!
But for now, here is Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky…
Earlier today, one of my favorite films of the first half of 2014, The Lego Movie, was released on Blu-ray. With that in mind, how could I not pick this song for song of the day?
Why do I love Everything is Awesome?
Not only is it insanely catchy but its probably one of the most sarcastic songs ever written. How could I not love it?
The Virgin Wolves is one of the best bands to come out of the Denton, Texas music scene and, as someone who spent some of the best years of her life in Denton, I’m happy to see them get some recognition. This is the video for one of their best songs, “Crawl.” The video was filmed in Denton, as should be obvious to any former student at the University of North Texas who has ever dealt with the pressure of finals by going out at midnight and getting high in a stranger’s living room.
Have you seen Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England yet?
If you haven’t, you really should. It’s just now getting an extremely limited theatrical release here in the States, though it’s also available via video-on-demand as well. I saw it earlier tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse (which is the greatest theater in the U.S., by the way) and I’m still working out my feelings towards it. It appears to be a film about a criminal, an alchemist, and a group of military deserters who, during the mid-17th Century, find themselves in an English field searching for a treasure that may or may not exist, while some of them have visions that may or may not be real.
Regardless of whether you think A Field In England is brilliant or just pretentious (and I think a good argument could be made for either conclusion), everyone can agree that one of the more memorable scenes in the film is the “tent scene”. You can watch the scene below, though it definitely loses something when taken out of context from the rest of the film.
The song playing as that unfortunate man walks out of that tent is Blanck Mass’s Chernobyl. And it’s also today’s song of the day!
Continuing my series on the best of 2013, here are ten of my favorite songs from 2013. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that these were the best songs of 2013. Some of them aren’t. But these are ten songs that, in the future, will define 2013 for me personally. Again, these are my picks and my picks only. So, if you think my taste in music sucks (and, admittedly, quite a few people do), direct your scorn at me and not at anyone else who writes for the Shattered Lens.
I’ve occasionally been asked what my criteria for a good song us. Honestly, the main things I look for in a song is 1) can I dance to it, 2) can I write to it, and 3) can I get all into singing it while I’m stuck in traffic or in the shower?
Anyway, at the risk of revealing just how much of a dork I truly am, here are ten of my favorite songs of 2013.
10) A Low and Swelling Sound Gradually Swelling (composed by Shane Carruth)
This atmospheric instrumental piece comes from the soundtrack of the best film of 2013, Upstream Color. This is great writing music.
9) Giorgio By Moroder (performed by Daft Punk and Giorgio Moroder)
From Random Access Memories.
8) Saturday (performed by Rebecca Black and Dave Days)
I make no apologies. Much like Friday, this is a fun song to sing when you’re driving to and from work. Plus, I think the video’s clever.
7) Brave (performed by Sara Bareilles)
I have to admit that I loved this song more before it started showing up in Nokia Lumia commercials.
6) Feel This Moment (performed by Pitbull, feat. Christina Aguilera)
5) Haunted (performed by ROB)
This is from the Maniac soundtrack. Much like the Carruth song, this is great writing music.
4) Work Bitch (performed by Britney Spears)
Not a day goes by that I don’t find an excuse to say, “You gotta work, bitch.”
3) A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) (performed by Fergie, feat. Q-Tip and Goon Rock)
From The Great Gatsby soundtrack.
2) Just Give Me A Reason (performed by Pink and Nate Ruess)
1) Lose Yourself to Dance (performed by Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams)
What else needs to be said?
Finally, here are two honorable mentions. These are two songs that helped define 2013 for me but, for various reasons, could not be included in my top ten.
First off, Alison Gold’s Chinese Food is technically a terrible song but it’s so terrible that it becomes oddly fascinating. Thanks to the presence of Patrice Wilson, the video is probably one of the most unintentionally creepy music videos ever made.
(I should admit that I happen to love Chinese food myself and therefore, this song is one that I’ve sung a lot over the past few years.)
The second honorable mention is a far better song than Chinese Food: Icona Pop’s I Love It. I Love It was released in 2012 but it’s the song that I listened to nonstop last year.. So, even if it was released a year earlier, I Love It is still my favorite song of 2013.
Tomorrow, I will continue my look back at 2013 with 10 good things that I saw on television last year.
It’s the first day of a brand new year and that means that it’s time for a new song of the day. And what better choice could there be than Neil Patrick Harris singing Brand New Day from Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
By the way, Dr. Horrible was right. The keys to shiny new Australia are the perfect way to unlock a girl’s heart…
Traditionally here in the States, Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday that sits between Halloween and Christmas. This is the time of year that those of us in the States are supposed to think about what we are thankful for. According to the people in Washington, this year we’re also supposed to talk to all of the members of our family about politics. They’ve even made talking points available, just in case you have a relative who isn’t crazy about your personal ideology. To me, though, that seems kind of foolish. Why would you ruin a perfectly good Thanksgiving with politics when you could spend your time thinking, talking, and arguing about movies and television?
After all, Presidents are only around for, at the most, eight years. Movies are forever.
With that in mind, here are twelve random things that I am thankful for in 2013.
1) I’m thankful that there are still visionaries like Shane Carruth who can make films like Upstream Color.
2) I’m thankful for actors, like Robert Downey, Jr., who are capable of making mainstream films, like Iron Man 3, memorable.
3) I’m thankful that a show like Breaking Badgot a chance to remind us of just how good television can be.
8) I’m thankful that I actually saw Tyler Perry’s Temptation because, otherwise, I would not believe that such an inept and deeply offensive film could have been made.
9) I am thankful for Icona Pop’s I Love It, which is currently my favorite song to play while I’m dancing around the house in my underwear.
10) I am thankful that the series finale of The Office was everything that it should have been.
11) I am thankful that Dexter finally ended because, seriously, the show was getting so bad that it was running the risk of overshadowing how good the first few seasons actually were.
12) Finally, and most importantly, I am thankful for our readers and for our subscribers. Y’all are the ones who make all of this worthwhile. Thank you!
