This is not one of any number of cover versions, this is the original song. This is the one that had me playing it over and over way back when pals of mine were into the music I was supposed to like. It's also an oblique tribute to gold today, as Gary and those who follow his wonderful blog will get the "...will be strong after the boys of summer have gone" reference, I'm quite sure.
The bizarre part of this video is that it dates from 1983, two years before Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo (you'll see what I mean). The cringeworthiness of this video is the look chosen by Joan's backing group, which is approximately Mullet-Perm Blue Steel. Sadly, it was cool at the time....oh those 80s....
The wonderfulness of this video is Joan, her exceptional voice and a song that's a four or five cuts above yer average pop. Quality abounds and fun vid too.
Miki González is great. Born of 80s rock that was into copycatting northern styles at the time, González has never stopped growing artistically and nowadays creates beautiful original sounds using traditional music backdrops.
This is track one from his 2004 Inkaterra Café album (100% instrumental, so fear not you non-Spanish speakers) and if you like what you hear (betcha you do)click here and listen to more of the same.
This the original 1987 malarkey and it's so great as a pop song that it sticks in your windpipe and goes "ugh ugh i'm not worthy really not". The musicianship combined with the velvet voice stands up to anything new out here 24 years (!OMG!) later. The video is high 80s farce of course, great to look back upon with a smile. The tune is just amazing no matter what the screen shows. Please, play very very loud.
Then as IKN loves you as if you were its own children, you also get this recording of the same awesomeness of a band called New Order (cool bandname in itself) running the same song 20 years after its birth (2008 Glasgow Scotland). It shows just how a track can morph and change over the years. Like fine wine, mellowing and more subtle with age.
Same damned cool velvet voice though, same wonderful delivery, same crowd-wowing result. Enjoy them both (top one 1st, bottom one 2nd...respect chronology, dude).
Today's Friday OT is humbly dedicated to reader Kirsty H and it's two for the price of one.
First up, a bit of Lindisfarne:
And the second is Toni Basil's all-time classic.
Enjoy the haircuts, the make-up, the everything.
Update: And then there's this, definitely the best thing Billy Corgan did and stands up against anything in the music of the last 20 years. Tonight Tonight sounds even better now than it did then and makes my heart ache with pleasure and memories. Superlative track.
Movie soundtrack songs usually kinda semi-suck. This one doesn't suck, not even a tiny little bit.
And not only does it seriously rock, the video is great fun too. All from the time when Fred Durst & Limp Bizkit had something to say musically...seems too long ago now. Please you to be enjoying killer track thank you.
The best new sounds out of LatAm right now come from Calle 13 and this song from a couple of years ago features the outright masterful Panamanian salsero Ruben Blades, a singer who's about 14 cuts above the rest of his genre....prohibido olvidar, baby.
La noche me sirve de sábana....this song is so damned cool
Did you know this song topped the charts in France for 16 weeks back in 1996? You couldn't move in the country for hearing the song at the time. It didn't hurt much though, because it was and is a great tune, the two voices seamless.
1) I heard it in the cool café in town this morning and it sounded great after all these years (and the owners of that joint have seriously good taste in music, btw, tonces salu2 al Pepe y Claudia)
2) You try to walk down a street like this round here and you'll either get arrested or beaten up.
3) It's one of the best intros to any song I can think of right now.
The video which best sums up Peru's election campaign.
From the Heads' last album, the underrated 'Naked', and dedicated to reader 'JS' in NYC for sharing his David Byrne anecdote once upon a few months ago. I'm still way jealous, dude.
To get you in the mood for tomorrowwithout having to resort to R.E.M. and with the extra special bonus of being able to sit through an extremely cheesey early 80s video.
A real slice of how it used to be....but cool beat all the same.
This happened mere hours ago, with Pink Floyd's Gilmour (and drummer Nick Mason) turning up at Roger Waters' O2 Arena gig in London and guesting guitar (from the top of the wall) on Comfortably Numb. For one good thing he shreds the famous solo and for another good thing the quality (and sound quality) of this recording, done by a fan from their telephone at best guess, is surprisingly good too. Apparently this is only the second time or something that Waters and Gilmour have performed together since Waters' split from Pink Floyd and according to the write up in Rolling Stone magazine (that you can read right here) the crowd went suitably apeshit at the event.