The Sounds of Our Lives (formerly General Music Discussion)

[VCRTracking]

Time flies....

 

Edited September 5, 2014 by VCRTracking

[Sharpie66]

Here's an excellent article of the complex history of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", including the tangled threads of who owns what rights to which version--"Mbube," "Wimoweh," or "The Lion Sleeps Tonight":

http://www.steynonline.com/6003/the-lion-sleeps-tonight

[Jeebus Cripes]

It was The Chiffon's, and was written by Ronald Mack.

 

Here is a video that highlights the two songs:

 

 

This is shocking. Why the hell would George Harrison of all people need to rip off someone's stuff? He was a brilliant songwriter. I mean, I guess there's something to be said for subconsciously doing it, but surely someone involved with the songs release would have noticed?

[BizBuzz]

This is shocking. Why the hell would George Harrison of all people need to rip off someone's stuff? He was a brilliant songwriter. I mean, I guess there's something to be said for subconsciously doing it, but surely someone involved with the songs release would have noticed?

 

I was so young when this was going on, like young to the point where news didn't matter.  But I do remember people talking about it.

 

My brother, who is 10 years older than me, and a musician said way back then that there are only 12 notes, there is only so many melodies that can come from them.  HA!

 

Anyway ... my understanding always was that these were the days the drugs really filled their time, so it was mostly drug induced.  And, back then, who knew right?  There was no way to do what this dude that posted the video did, overlay.  Yeah, I guess they could have overlayed it on cassette, but not how it's presented here.

 

I agree though, George had raw talent, this should not have happened.  Someone should have caught it.

[Sharpie66]

A place to talk about your favorite non-pop, non-folk traditional music.

I really like lots of different "world music," or what used to be called (maybe it still is, I don't know) "ethnic" music. It's a great way to learn about different cultures around the world.

 

I've been thinking about this because I'm going to Ireland next week (yay!), and I was wondering if anyone has a favorite "Trad" music group to recommend that I can download before leaving to get me in the proper mood.

[BizBuzz]

I don't know if this is what your looking for, but I own this CD.  Clannad is all over the spectrum in the kind of music they play, considered by some to be Irish Folk, others Irish Rock, still others Celtic.  All I know is that this album in particular is some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard in my life.

 

Almost transcendental.

 

Their claim to fame came from being featured in The Last of the Mohicans with their song I Will Find You.  They wrote the song specifically for the movie.  The lead singer sings in English, Mohican and Cherokee.  It's haunting:

 

[BatmanBeatles]

Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl? sounds a bit like:

 

Iggy Pop's Lust For Life

Edited September 10, 2014 by BatmanBeatles

[BetterButter]

 

 

[AntiBeeSpray]

Wow. That one is really well known. 

[BatmanBeatles]

 

[AntiBeeSpray]

Weird Al kind of poked fun of that in his take on Lady Gaga's song, with his song, "Perform this Way". It was kinda funny XD.

[BatmanBeatles]

I loved that. He shoves a woman dressed like Madonna in the face.

[Jeebus Cripes]

I never realized the Lust For Life/Are You Gonna Be My Girl similarity before now. Wow.

[Ankai]

I also hear a bit of Can't Hurry Love.

 

One thing that I don't quite understand is deliberately copying pieces of another song. This is not sampling, just copying, though some people consider it sampling. This seems to have been pretty prevalent during the past few years. One example that I always return to is the use of a melody from Roberta Flack's version of Gone Away in What You Know by T.I. People call that sampling, but I hear no shared instruments, just the same melody. All I can think of is the producer played the melody on some cheap keyboard and threw that out instead of coming up with something of his own, which he could have done with a few minutes of doodling around. I can sort of appreciate sampling in terms of recontextualization of music, but putting in this effort to copy a melody just comes across as odd.  

 

[Shannon L.]

I was going to name this "Great Music Moments", then figured that everyone has a different idea of what "great" is, so I changed it to "favorite".  It can be a video, the launch of MTV or even Rock and Roll itself, Whitney bursting out those a capella notes at the beginning of "I Will Always Love You", a live performance.....anything music related.

 

I know I'll think of more later, but these are the first ones that came to my mind:

 

I can't find a shorter version of this, so if you don't want to watch the whole thing, forward to 2:50 and watch from there.  This is from Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars"--a fund raiser for autism research.  The little girl in the video has autism and the one thing that helped her was music.  What follows still brings tears to my eyes (and I must say, I don't think I've seen Katy Perry look prettier than she does here):

 

 

We're huge Queen fans in this house.  Here, Brian May plays God Save the Queen on top of Buckingham Palace, opening up the Queens Jubilee:

 

 

And, of course, I'll never forget the premiere of the Thriller video. 

Edited October 16, 2014 by Shannon L.

[KnoxForPres]

Wow ShannonL, that little girl playing the piano sure did provoke some tears. Such innocence. When she sang solo, that's where it got me. I'm go glad I got to see this. It made me like Katy Perry a lot more. I liked how her eyes were on the sweet little girl. It didn't feel fake to me.

When I was in college, Fiddler on the Roof came to town. I couldn't find family or friend to go with me so I went alone. When "If I Were a Rich Man" was on, I just sat in amazement. Something I had loved so long and got to see it live. Awesome.

The prior was a tad more favorite because I was alone (does that make me weird?) but One Day More live in Les Mis. Damn it.

Edited October 16, 2014 by KnoxForPres

[Shannon L.]

Nah, going alone doesn't make you weird.  Nor does the amazement of a Broadway musical.  Our school had great singers and actors, so we always did musicals and I'd sit and watch rehearsals and then go to all three nights because I loved them.  My first professional musical was Cats, when I was 16, and I practically held my breath through Memory. 

 

 

I liked how her eyes were on the sweet little girl. It didn't feel fake to me.

I liked that, too.  Also, how she didn't overwhelm her with her singing--it was like a true duet. 

Edited October 16, 2014 by Shannon L.

[KnoxForPres]

Hell yes. Bonus points when the actress playing Grizabella is a tad on the older side.

It's like a song you've heard so many times, you see it live and it renders you speechless.

[Rick Kitchen]

"One Day More" is the best first act closer in any musical, ever.  It always gives me chills.  I've seen four different performances of Les Mis, as well as watching the movie and several versions on YouTube, and every time I watch it, it gives me chills.

[spaceytraci1208]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest version of the Star-Spangled Banner I think I will ever hear. RIP, Whitney...my God she was incredible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE

 

One of my favorite Grammy performances

 

Does VH1 still do the Hip Hop Honors? If not, they shouldn't bring them back unless they can get some magic like this to happen again

[BizBuzz]

ShannonL, thanks so much for letting my eyes get washed this morning.  How utterly beautiful that was.  I liked Katy Perry before, but now that has been raised to I don't know what.  Wow.

[Shannon L.]

spaceytraci1208, Ricky sounds great live!  I stopped watching the Grammy's before that performance, so I hadn't seen that.  Whitney was fantastic and had such a new sound for that generation.  So sad that her life ended the way it did. 

Edited October 19, 2014 by Shannon L.

[AimingforYoko]

One of my favorite Grammy performances

Here's one of mine:

[Rick Kitchen]

Luther Vandross doing "A House is Not a Home" live.

 

[spaceytraci1208]

Luther Vandross doing "A House is Not a Home" live.

When I first came acrossthis clip browsing YouTube a few months ago, I had no idea that this was Dionne Warwick's song. I was confused as to why the camera kept going back to her...thought maybe it was her birthday. Luther took that song and ran so far away with it that she couldn't find it again lol

[Shannon L.]

I read today that Bob Geldoff is doing a remake of Do They Know It's Christmas? and the money is going to help fight Ebola.  I remember how incredible it was to watch all of my favorite bands get together to sing this one song. It still gives me goosebumps (even more so than the other charity songs that stemmed from it).

 

[DeLurker]

I still love that song.  It was so much fun to listen to all the singers and hear their very distinctive voices throughout the song.  And damn!  They all look so young.

 

I was never a big fan of Boy George's music, but  he did  have an incredible voice.

[HalcyonDays]

A thread devoted to the awesome singers and bands that hail from the Great White North!

[HalcyonDays]

First off, I have to say that most bands that I hear on the radio and immediately love, are either English or Canadian bands. Don't know why it is, to be honest....something about their sound catches me.

 

But one Canadian band that feel has been severely neglected/ignored is the Tea Party. Please note that their name was chosen far in advance of the idiot politicians in the US now. Anyway, their music is phenonomal and as someone who has seen them live....The rumour is that Jeff Martin (lead singer extraodinaire) can play any instrument. Yes he can. Dear god, can he ever! We are talking about eleven different instruments. A lot of bands cannot sound good when live. This DOES NOT apply to the Tea Party. They sound amazing when live, and I love that, because I am of that generation that does not value singers and bands who autotune or otherwise fake their abilities. The bands members in the Tea Party were/are pure and amazing!

[Misslindsey]

I have a soft spot for the band BareNaked Ladies. All the way back with the album Gordon. I have seen them in concert many many times, and they are so fun. So much improv going on. I love it. I loved them with Steven and now without. Plus I always had a strange crush on Ed.

[Rick Kitchen]

Nobody has a voice like Gordon Lightfoot.  Well, maybe Ian Tyson.

[AntiBeeSpray]

I have a soft spot for the band BareNaked Ladies. All the way back with the album Gordon. I have seen them in concert many many times, and they are so fun. So much improv going on. I love it. I loved them with Steven and now without. Plus I always had a strange crush on Ed.

I remember them! Used to listen to them a lot back then! Good to see that they're still going strong.

[BizBuzz]

It's sad, but I am not all that familiar with bands/artists that came from Canada as much as I know which came from the UK.  I need to get more versed in my northern neighbor's artistic talents.  I know a lot of Canadian actors and comedians, just not so much the music end. 

 

Anyway, never knew Gordon Lightfoot was from Canada.  Love me some Gordon Lightfoot. 

[briochetwist]

Love this thread!  Have loved BNL since the early days, miss Steven though.  I too, have a strange crush on Ed.  Sloan and Arcade Fire are longtime favorites, but currently I'm loving Marianas Trench, they are so underrated.  Oh, and cute little Shawn Mendes, dude is the anti-Bieber.  

[Joe]

Much like the title says, good and bad song or track titles. However, let's keep it just to that, ignoring your thoughts on the actual music.

 

I've always liked one from Dark Tranquillity that sounds like a chapter title in an awesome fantasy novel. My Faeryland Forgotten. I don't like the song itself, just the title. I'd love to write that novel. Maybe one day...

 

Arcturus' album Sideshow Symphonies gives me much the same, chapter titles from an SF novel. Hibernation Sickness Complete, Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer, and Evacuation Code Deciphered. Someone wakes up from suspended animation. Their spaceship has crashed on a deserted planet, they need to get the emergency beacon working. Again, one day...

 

Bal-Sagoth has a range of entertainingly ridiculous album and song titles, my favourite is Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu, closely followed by To Storm the Cyclopean Gates of Byzantium. They're just so grandiose and silly.

 

In the bad category, however, I can't believe I'm going to call Cannibal Corpse out on a lack of subtlety. Nothing they've ever done is subtle. But still. The track Followed Home Then Killed. I'd go with just Followed Home. It has the implication of being killed, yes. But who can say what horrible things can happen before that? Sometimes less is more.

 

What are some of your highlights and lowlights?

[Jeebus Cripes]

"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" - The Police. Dumb. On the other hand, "Spirits In The Material World" is a great title.

[magicdog]

I always had a pet peeve of titles of songs that don't appear in the song lyrics (unless the song is recorded as an instrumental).  Sometimes however, they can be thought provoking to the point of grabbing a dictionary.  I refer to the obscure Monkees tune, "Propinquity" (written and sung by Mike Nesmith) .  He rerecorded it on a solo album later on.

[WendyCR72]

Heard one that was alike (at least at the beginning of the song):

 

 

Vanilla Ice's take...

 

 

The original by Queen

 

This ended up in court. Apparently, Mr. Ice (heh) didn't ask the surviving members of Queen for use of the melody and was all over MTV at the time saying, since there may have been an added drumbeat or whatever, that it was no longer the same melody. Dumbass.

 

Guess who lost in court?

 

On the same sampling topic, Van Halen also took Tone Loc to court, not for music, but for the drumbeat riff he took from "Jamie's Crying" that he used for "Wild Thing". It also went to court and a settlement was reached, and Tone Loc paid the band.

 

Moral? ASK THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS. Idiots.

[WendyCR72]

The birth of MTV Unplugged - after this great Jon Bon Jovi/Richie Sambora duet at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. When MTV played music. It was this performance that gave MTV the idea for Unplugged.

 

Take a listen!

[WendyCR72]

So, Scott Stapp of Creed claims he is "penniless". While it is a sad situation, well...he can thank his drug habit for helping to suck up some of his earnings. Sigh. But I've read the remaining members of Creed don't want a reunion. Maybe he can do solo work if he's cleaned up his act?

 

For his sake, I do hope things improve for him. Just goes to show things can change in a heartbeat.

[AntiBeeSpray]

This ended up in court. Apparently, Mr. Ice (heh) didn't ask the surviving members of Queen for use of the melody and was all over MTV at the time saying, since there may have been an added drumbeat or whatever, that it was no longer the same melody. Dumbass.

 

Guess who lost in court?

 

On the same sampling topic, Van Halen also took Tone Loc to court, not for music, but for the drumbeat riff he took from "Jamie's Crying" that he used for "Wild Thing". It also went to court and a settlement was reached, and Tone Loc paid the band.

 

Moral? ASK THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS. Idiots.

 

Definitely. And if it's too expensive to sample from, don't sample it.

[Jeebus Cripes]

So, Scott Stapp of Creed claims he is "penniless". While it is a sad situation, well...he can thank his drug habit for helping to suck up some of his earnings. Sigh. But I've read the remaining members of Creed don't want a reunion. Maybe he can do solo work if he's cleaned up his act?

 

I hope the original members don't reunite. Alter Bridge is so far superior to anything Stapp was ever involved in.

[WendyCR72]

I hope the original members don't reunite. Alter Bridge is so far superior to anything Stapp was ever involved in.

 

I like Alter Bridge, but where the hell was I? That's the rest of Creed? Huh.

[Sandman87]

Speaking of Queen, here's their title theme from Flash Gordon:

And now here's the opening credits theme from the anime show The Big O:

When [as] shows The Big O on Saturday nights, they don't run the opening credits. They just put up a title card for a few seconds. Can't imagine why. :)

[Rick Kitchen]

I don't understand how somebody who has no money can live in a Holiday Inn.  Isn't that expensive?

[nicepebbles]

IIRC, I read an article where Bruno Mars talked about the song "Roxanne" influencing "Locked Out of Heaven".

Sampling annoys me when some mediocre group or a good group makes a mediocre or crap song using a piece from a song that a classic IMO. It's like don't sully the original by associating with it.

[GaT]

Sampling annoys me when some mediocre group or a good group makes a mediocre or crap song using a piece from a song that a classic IMO. It's like don't sully the original by associating with it.

This is exactly how I feel about "Otis" by Jay Z & Kanye West. Don't screw with Otis Redding.

[Kromm]

Either the original video with new music over it, or the original music onto a new video.

 

For example, here's the best way to enjoy the otherwise overplayed (and thus annoying) "Shake It Off".  A cheesy dub onto a lame early 80s aerobics championship video!!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlJI-GqB-6Y

 

 

[BetterButter]

[spaceytraci1208]

I hope this link works, because this is one of my favorite things...ever

 

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/6hg