Be Completely Yourself

R.I.P. Marianne Faithfull

R.I.P. Marianne Faithfull. It seemed that for most of her life, as sung by former boyfriend Mick Jagger, wild horses could not drag her away. She survived heroin addiction, anorexia, homelessness, and near-death from COVID. But now she's gone and she leaves behind a fascinating life and artistic catalog.

I first became aware of her in 1980 when she released "Broken English," a sort of "comeback" album...or at least a "transformation" album that saw her go from 60s-70s personality to contemporary, cutting edge artist. Here she is singing the amazing, pulsing title track.

Her version of the lovely "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" was also on this album.

She delighted fans in 2002 with her "Kissin' Time" release that saw her collaborate with Beck, Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Blur, Pulp, and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics). Here is the funky Beck/Faithfull tune "Sex With Strangers" starring supermodel Kate Moss.

Thanks for the music, Marianne. Have fun frolicking with those wild horses...

http://www.mariannefaithfull.org.uk/

Remembering Robert Palmer

Today, on the 21st anniversary of his death, I am remembering Robert Palmer with fondness. I recall watching the video for "Looking For Clues" on a brand new channel called MTV in 1980...

Robert Palmer died in 2003 at the too-young age of 54 in Paris of a heart attack. He is buried in Lugano, Switzerland.

R.I.P. Robert, thanks for the music.

https://robertpalmer.com/

R.I.P. Melanie

Singer-songwriter Melanie has died at 76. She performed at Woodstock and sang some of the most memorable songs of the period. Songs from my youth...

R.I. P. Melanie and thanks for your music. 

https://www.melaniesafka.com/

R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto

A cultural touchstone moment...

R.I.P. Astrud, thanks for the music.

http://astrudgilberto.com/

R.I.P. Tina Turner

You were a force, Tina. Thank you for the music, the energy, and the joie de vivre. Rest in peace.

https://www.tinaturnerofficial.com/

Kate Bush In The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame!

Congratulations Kate! For your incredible imagination, exquisite compositions, and contributions of great power and beauty to the world, you deserve this honor.

https://www.katebush.com/

"Know" by Jungstötter

Jungstötter (the nom de musique of German singer-songwriter Fabian Altstötter) is now on my radar. Frontman of the band Sizarr, he released his second solo album called "One Star," on April 28th, 2023. The bold experimental sound is arresting and the visuals have a near-Matthew Barney feeling.

Sunrise sun is out, late against me
I’ve known my contours on this body

Stoke a chill down lines of heat I’ve known
Bordering your body

I’ve known
A bloated figment crushing mine
I’ve known
Until your hands touched my body

I’ve known
But who am I to dislodge dreams
I’ve known
Right away

What are all these skies?
Brass and copper plates
But a dress mid-flight
(Stroke)
Across your face

Pour your lines out
Land against me
I’ll know the orders of your body

I’ll know
All of the seasons of your face
I’ll know
The scriptures of your body

What are all these skies?
Brass and copper plates
But a dress mid-flight
(Stroke)
Across your face

As the wheels take flight
Heavens rearrange
You inside their lights
Haven’t changed

Jungstötter - Photo by Clemens Schmiedbauer

https://www.jungstotter-one-star.com/

Happy Birthday "Diva" by Annie Lennox!

Following a phenomenal career and string of hits while fronting Eurythmics, Annie Lennox released her first solo album, "Diva," on April 6, 1992...THIRTY ONE YEARS AGO TODAY. It's hard to fathom it has been that long. So let's celebrate the anniversary of this stellar collection of songs. There's not a bad one in the bunch; it is literally a perfect album. Listen to the songs below but also marvel at the sheer emotive power of Lennox. She is simply mesmerizing to watch. All the videos are great but I particularly like "Little Bird" with all her past incarnations sharing the stage.

Thank you, Annie, for all the music!

https://www.annielennox.com/

"Summertime" by Joni Mitchell

I am absolutely blown away by Joni Mitchell's (previously here) voice in this excerpt from her all-star concert tribute when she received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize. It sounds as if, miraculously, she has shaved thirty years off her voice...and considering the harrowing health issues she has been through the last several years, this is especially wonderful to hear. Long live Joni!

PBS stations will broadcast the concert — “Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” — at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, March 31 (check local listings) and on PBS.org and the PBS App as part of the co-produced Emmy Award-winning music series. It will also be broadcast to U.S. Department of Defense locations around the world via the American Forces Network.

Mitchell got her start performing in coffee shops and nightclubs in her native Canada and would go on to become an icon among music makers, setting a new standard marrying music and lyrics. With such songs as “Both Sides, Now,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Woodstock” and “The Circle Game,” Mitchell became a household name.

Mitchell redefined the role of women musicians. She oversaw all aspects of her albums, including songwriting, arrangements, performance, production and artwork. Her sound crosses musical genres from folk to jazz, classical and rock, and she continues to inspire her fellow artists.

Mitchell is also a talented painter, creating the cover art for many of her albums, and her visual art will be featured prominently in the tribute concert, along with her music.

“I’m a creative person. I like the creative process,” Mitchell said. “I’ve been a painter all my life. I’ve been a musician most of my life. If you can paint with a brush, you can paint with words. … It’s a great honor to join the pantheon of recipients.”

Bestowed in recognition of the legendary songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin, the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is the nation’s highest award for influence, impact and achievement in popular music. The honoree is selected by the Librarian of Congress in consultation with a board of scholars, producers, performers, songwriters and other music specialists. Previous recipients are Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Sir Paul McCartney, songwriting duo the late Burt Bacharach and the late Hal David, Carole King, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Tony Bennett, Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Garth Brooks, and Lionel Richie.

https://jonimitchell.com/

Bono and The Edge At The Tiny Desk

On the heels of St. Patrick's Day, let's check in with a pair of very famous Irishmen: Bono and The Edge (if you have been living under a rock, they are part of a little band called U2 who have a had a few hit songs here and there) dropped in to the Tiny Desk at NPR--yesterday, on St. Pat's Day--to perform a low-key, charming set.

Tiny Desk says: "The performance was a preview of U2's new album, Songs Of Surrender, featuring stripped-down versions of songs from across the band's catalog. To help pull off several reimagined songs from the 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, Bono and The Edge invited a teen choir from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., to join them. During rehearsals, Bono told the students to think of 'Beautiful Day' as the kind of 'post-drinking' singalong you'd bellow with friends after leaving a bar. He then quickly realized none of them are old enough to drink, before feigning a heart attack."

"Songs of Surrender," 40 U2 songs reimagined and re-recorded is out now.
https://www.u2.com/

Happy Birthday, Iva Davies of Icehouse!

A very happy birthday to Mr. Iva Davies, founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and immensely talented songwriter of the Australian band Icehouse.

I am feeling great love and nostalgia for this 1980 song from their debut album. Not only is Icehouse the name of the group, having changed it from their original name Flowers, but the song itself is also titled "Icehouse." Although Icehouse was never truly seen as a New Romantic band (yet they were tagged with the catch-all New Wave title by some), I sure felt they belonged with other fantastic New Romantic groups like Ultravox. The "Icehouse" song and their debut album (as well as their sophomore album "Primitive Man") was an atmospheric, synth-heavy affair with a marvelous use of texture. The accompanying video resembles New Romantic classics like Ultravox's "The Thin Wall" and "The Voice," and even Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Draw Of The Cards," all directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy. Follow this haunting, touching narrative that beautifully supports the chilling, profound lyrics and aching, moving melody.

It's always cold inside the icehouse
Though the rivers never freeze
There's a girl outside the icehouse
I can see her clearly though the trees

Now she's dreaming of a new love
And she hopes he'll be there soon
She's got so long to wait for him
Because he needs another year to get there

She'll wait another lifetime out there

There's no love inside the icehouse

The devil lives inside the icehouse
At least that's what the old ones say
They say He came along time ago
He came here in the winter snow
Now it's colder every day

But she's still dreaming through the summer
And she's hoping through the spring
She says she's got no time for winter nights
She doesn't notice as the days grow darker
She can't remember getting any older

There's no love inside the icehouse

 
Now she's dreaming of a new love
And she hopes he'll be there soon
She says she's got no time for winter nights
She doesn't notice as the days grow darker
She can't remember getting any older

There's no love inside the icehouse
There's no love inside the icehouse
The icehouse

Happy Birthday, Iva! Thanks for sharing decades of your music with us.

https://icehouse-ivadavies.com/

"Listening Close" by Hoj + Newman (I Love) with Aaron Percy

Wonderful new track from Hoj + Newman (I Love) with Aaron Percy on vocals, "Listening Close"...smooth, percolating, bouncy, dreaming...

I’m tuning in
I’m listening close
I’m feeding in your energy
I’m starting to glow

I’m moving in
I’m feeling closer to you
I’m feeding in your energy
I’m starting to glow

https://soundcloud.com/hoj
https://soundcloud.com/ilovenewman
https://aaronpercy.com

Five Years

It's been five years since he left.

Pushing through the market square,
So many mothers sighing
News had just come over,
We had five years left to cry in

News guy wept and told us,
Earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet,
Then I knew he was not lying

I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and T.V.'s
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people
And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people
I never thought I'd need so many people

A girl my age went off her head,
Hit some tiny children
If the black hadn't a-pulled her off,
I think she would have killed them

A soldier with a broken arm,
Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest,
And a queer threw up at the sight of that

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlor,
Drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine,
Don't think you knew you were in this song

And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk

We've got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
We've got five years, what a surprise
Five years, stuck on my eyes
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got

Five years

Has it really been five years?
We miss you, David...

https://www.davidbowie.com/

FKA twigs on Artemisia, Catherine, Judith, and Magdelene

In this continuing series from Google called ArtZoom (see Matt Healy from The 1975 discuss a work by Piet Mondrian here), singer-songwriter FKA Twigs muses on the painting "Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria" by Artemisia Gentileschi...   

And here she examines Gentileschi's take on Judith beheading Halofernes.

This unique view of Mary Magdelene is examined by FKA Twigs whose most recent album is entitled "Magdelene."

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/artemisia-gentileschi-self-portrait-as-saint-catherine-of-alexandria

https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/judith-beheading-holofernes

https://fkatwi.gs/

Simon Buret Can Paint Too!

His day job might be as vocalist in the French music duo AaRon (previously here) but Simon Buret is also an accomplished painter! His marvelous imagery is reminiscent of the primitive styling of Picasso and the kaleidoscopic mash up of objects in the work of Chagall...

Top to bottom: Fourty [sic] White Roses and an Artichoke Sun; L'endormi; La musique; La Traversée; Layers of Night; Le déjeuner sauvage; Les Améthystes; Planetarium; The Evening Bows (In Ocean Chants); The Harvest Gold; The Longings

https://www.instagram.com/simonburet/

And for good measure, take a look at "The Flame" by AaRon... 

 

https://www.instagram.com/AaRONtheband/

Matty Healy reaches “the foundation of things” with Mondrian

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” --John Adams

Perfume Genius As Egon Schiele

While we are all still at home, lots of people have taken the opportunity to find or rediscover a marvelous sense of creativity. One of the ways people are exploring creating is by staging recreations of famous works of art. The Getty Museum is one of the institutions encouraging people.

I am a big fan of this concept--I love when people recreate photographs of famous works of art, previously here, here, and here.

So I was delighted to come across these images--from three years ago!--of the extraordinary Perfume Genius (the nom de musique of singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas, previously here) in pitch perfect recreations of self portraits by the Austrian painter Egon Schiele, which appeared in the magazine Dinosaur.

Self Portrait 3 by Egon Schiele

Self Portrait with Peacock Waistcoat by Egon Schiele

Self Portrait as St. Sebastian 2 by Egon Schiele

Self Portrait 6 by Egon Schiele

https://perfumegenius.org/
https://www.egon-schiele.net/

The Charming Animation of Mattijn Franssen

These charming, odd, short animated films by Mattijn Franssen (accompanied by his original songs) are populated by quirky people and monsters, and are full of love, loss, humor, and yearning.

http://www.mattijn.com/index.htm

R.I.P. Ric Ocasek

R.I.P. Ric Ocasek.

The Cars tunes were catchy and fun but "Jimmy Jimmy" was a great, meaningful song that didn't get much attention.

http://www.ricocasek.com/