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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Random Mondays on Tuesday
Hey, it's back. I ripped off the A.V. Club and set my iPod on random to create a feature on this blog. The mp3 hyperlinks won't appear on the RSS feed but they will on the blog. They also won't appear when the blogger behind this whole mess is a lazy bum. That's a whole other issue, though.
Ted Leo, "C.I.A." from Living With the Living Buy here! Listen here!
I sometimes feel like Ted Leo is the last person doing real live rock & roll. I know that's not true but I wonder why there aren't millions of kids inspired by Leo to pick up a guitar, learn three chords (maybe two and a half) and pour their hearts out. Leo is in the mold of someone like Springsteen or Elvis Costello. All three try to combine the might of rock with the heart of a working-class poet.
Here is best song from Living With the Living and for the life of me I can't figure out how the verses and chorus work together. For the verse Leo is telling the story of a neighborhood kid and his community: "My father works from 6 to 8/And he ain't given up his faith/And so I haven't given up myself/Though I sure could use a little help." The chorus is simply "C.I.A. only you know what you've done." I know Leo is a very political songwriter but given the context of which its used I have to assume C.I.A. stands for something other than Central Intelligence Agency. It doesn't seem to fit. There's nothing about spying or toppling world leaders in this song. Maybe that confusion is why I dig the song so much.
The Staple Singers, "You've Got to Earn It" from The Best of The Staple Singers Buy here! Listen here!
I'm always impressed by how positive The Staple Singers are. Over the course of pop music in the last of the 20th Century it seems pessimism and negativity gets the most acclaim. It's like how The Beatles didn't get respect until Rubber Soul and Revolver came out and they got a little darker (that's a bit of a broad statement, huh?). But to write genuinely positive, inspiring music and focus on the good things about life is truly a feat. The Staple family was right there during the Civil Rights Movement, seeing man's inhumanity to man right in front of their face. Throughout they stayed hopeful, offering up words of wisdom such as this song. I wonder if you could do that today?
Elliott Smith, "2:45 AM" from Either/Or Buy here! Listen here!
I'm always impressed by how positive Elliot Smith is...oh wait. I listen to Smith a ton on my iPod (one of the other popular artist for me is The Smiths, funny enough). I'll admit to being occasionally morose and Smith's songs are a certain type of medicine for that feeling. But more than that I'm impressed with the songcraft of one dude with an acoustic guitar. The way he plays that scale riff relentlessly through the song matches the obsessiveness of the narrator is intense. A full band comes in at the end but it's only for a few seconds. It's a neat little trick, giving the song just a few moments of grandeur.
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