The Legendary Annie Lennox

I was truly looking forward to writing this review. There are so many things that need to be said in regards to this woman. Its beyond her voice, beyond her presence, beyond her deeds, its all of it rolled up into one. The Great Annie Lennox.

As most people, my first experience with Annie Lennox was with the band, The Eurythmics. The 80s brought about sooo many amazing bands into my life and The Eurythmics were one of them. The moment I saw her I saw fire. LOL. That short red hair, the stunning eyes, the androgynous look made me think “Who IS that???” Then I heard that voice!

Annie has this voice that you see her and think, “wow that just came out of her mouth… really…awesome!”. Its deep,sultry, powerful, shocking, beautiful, enchanting, I could go on forever. You heard her voice and you forgot about everything around you. All that mattered was her voice. The great thing was my mom fell in love with her too and when you are 8 years old, with not many friends, and raised by a single mom, your bond is stronger and having our love for The Eurythmics and Annie Lennox made it just that much more fun!

So eventually Scottish-born Annie took a much needed break from the Eurythmics to work on solo work and whoa did THAT take off!!

Her first “solo” work was mainly a duet with Al Green covering the song “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” for the movie Scrooged. it was produced by her Eurythmics cohort Dave Stewart and it was just uphill from there.

Her first solo album Diva is probably one of THE most amazing albums ever. The songs “Why” and “Walking On Broken Glass” were epic! I can listen to Why and cry my eyes out. Its basically everything I feel in my head when I feel supressed or patronized. Its someone yelling for you “THIS IS HOW I FEEL YOU DONT KNOW HOW I FEEL!!” Its such a release you want to laugh, scream, cry, shake your fist, breathe a sigh of relief. Walking on Broken Glass the range of octaves for her in the bridge are just so amazing. Its a standard of mine in karaoke. Little Bird is also a favorite from that album. The video for it is just as great. A bunch of lookalikes from all her personas in her many different videos from the past. Its a fun romp!

She also did a song for the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The movie kinda sucked but the song “Song for a Vampire” is one of the most beautiful songs in the world. I wish I had sang it. I wish I had that talent. I do have talent but wow, to be Annie Lennox!

Anyways after Diva came Medusa which was an album of cover songs however I gotta tell ya, I forgot No More I Love You’s wasnt her own song. In fact almost all the songs on that cd you forget they are from other people because she makes them her own.

Bare was exactly that but in a good way. A bit more simplistic yet just as beautiful. Annie found her niche and its as a phenomenal solo diva!

As for soundtrack work, she release yet another gem with her song for Return of the King, “Into the West”. It won a well deserved Oscar for best original song.

More recently in 2007 she had put out yet another album entitled, Songs of Mass Destruction. I highly suggest checking out all of her work. Annie Lennox is sheer majesty! I bow down in reverence.

The video I have is Song for a Vampire from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was hard finding a video since most were disabled for embedding yet I lucked out with this one!

I was there –  but sadly have yet obtained such a press pass to get backstage.  Rolling Stone, however, put together a pretty complete album of backstage shots from the 25th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concerts a few weeks back.

View the slide show here – my personal favorites are a solo of Yoko Ono, and one of Sting, Annie Lennox and Lenny Kravitz.  Wonder what a threesome would entail with those three?

Goodness, this was the perfect song to stumble upon and listen to as I ready myself to wrap up the week. (I love it when that happens–when just the right song, thought, or book makes its way to you right when it’s most the needed.)

So yeah–it’s Friday! Yay. In addition to getting in some ice-skating and Colombian awareness, I’d like to replenish my vitamin a with some museum- and gallery-hopping since it’s been a while. So far my two “can’t miss” places are:

• El Museo del Barrio’s free, day-long Target Super Sabado.

• Guy Ben-Ner’s piece, as well as other artists’ works, at performance art festival Performa 09, happening mostly downtown through Sunday, 22.

And we’ll see wherever else I end up. Just feels so good to be at the start of a spankin’ new weekend.

Harbottle & Lewis LLP
Hanover House,
14 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1HP

Dear lawyers of Annie Lennox,

unfortunately you don’t answer your email but it seems you react on blogging. Therefore now my public plea after two unsuccessful attempts to get a reaction from you:

You accused me on lying in a “confidential complaint” to WordPress.  As the person you complain about I asked you now twice to be so kind and send this complaint to me. As I do not have any intent to lie on my  blog it is surely not too much asked to reveal at to me what the points of concern have been, your client Annie Lennox is raising in this email to WordPress. I agreed with WordPress to alter my blog until further notice to wait for clarification. The people of WordPress cannot hand over the complaint as it is marked “confidential”.

I have no interest to fight with Annie Lennox or you, but I have a definite interest to know, why I am accused of lying and I have a clear interest to clarify the situation. I guess you also agree as men of the law that it cannot be right to accuse somebody of something, initiate almost a suspension of a blog without telling the person what this is all about.

So please – you can send the complaint to: stevy60@yahoo.com.

I am looking forward to the chance to clarify the situation, and if the situation warrants it you can be sure I am the first to apologize, if I was wrong in my assessment.

Kind regards

Rev.Fr Stefan Hippler

I was a little uncomfortable but mostly empowered.

oder

jedes Stück hat seinen eigenen Reiz.

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Now, get ready for this week’s Top 5 Music Countdown: Rock & Pop Sleep Songs!!

5. “Enter Sandman“
-MetallicaFun fact: I was a big Metallica groupie in high school. My gal pals and I used to drive up to Tahoe to snowboard and rock out to Metallica on the way.

4. “Sweet Dreams“
-The Eurythmics

One of my all-time favorite music videos. Classic. Annie Lennox was the sh**t.

3. “Talking in your Sleep“
-The RomanticsThis is very nostalgic of my days as an MTV kid. Scantily clad ladies ready for bed, FTW!

2. “Dream On“
-AerosmithGuilty pleasure! Evokes fond memories of the carefree, simple days of teenage life.

1. “Sleep the Clock Around“
-Belle & SebastianSometimes all I want to do is sleep the clock around. Like Sleeping Beauty.

Are you tired too? Leave me your list of favorite sleep songs below! Come ONNN, live a little!!

Singer Annie Lennox has received woman of peace honour for her contribution towards raising awareness of HIV and Aids.

The former Eurythmics star was honoured at a summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Berlin.

The 54-year-old’s charitable campaign ‘Sing’ provides treatment to South Africans fighting the disease.

And the organization has raised funds amounting to 2 million pounds since 2003.

“I want to express my profound gratitude and deep humility,” the BBC News quoted Lennox as saying.

She added: “I honour all the women working around the globe to reduce the effects of this pandemics. This is for them, they truly deserve it.”

Lennox further mentioned that former South African president Nelson Mandela inspired her work, when he described the HIV pandemic as “genocide.”

AFP – 12.11.2009

Annie Lennox

De acordo a France Presse, em Berlim, em matéria reproduzida na Folha Online, a cantora Annie Lennox foi [merecidamente] escolhida nesta quarta-feira, 11.11.2009, a “Mulher da Paz 2009″:

(…) por seu compromisso com a luta contra a Aids na África do Sul, ao concluir, em Berlim, a décima cúpula das pessoas premiadas com o Nobel da Paz.

A cantora da dupla Eurythmics, famosa nos anos 80, fundou em 2007 a iniciativa SING, convidando 23 artistas a gravar um álbum, cujos lucros foram destinados à compra de medicamentos, educaçao e proteção das mulheres e crianças sul-africanas ameaçadas pela Aids.

Annie Lennox, usando uma camiseta com a inscrição “HIV Positivo”, recebeu a estatueta de bronze das mãos do ex-presidente da república sul-africana, Frederik de Klerk, Nobel da Paz em 1993 pelas reformas que acabaram com o apartheid em 1991.

Leia mais clicando aqui.

El 24 de noviembre se cumplirán 18 años de la muerte de Freddy Mercury y adelantándonos a tal efemérides vamos a enfrentar a una de las grandes canciones de Queen con dos de las múltiples versiones que se han hecho de ella. He escogido aquella fabulosa grabación realizada junto a David Bowie en 1981 titulada Under Pressure. Vaya suma de estrellas para una sola canción, Freddy Mercury y “el camaleón del rock”. La línea de bajo de la canción la hace tan característica que hoy en día sigue siendo una de las más recordadas del grupo.  En 1990 incluso un amago de rapero apodado Vanilla Ice quiso sacar tajada fusilándola torpemente en su Ice Ice Baby sin pedir permiso a sus autores. Tras la pertinente acusación, alegó en su descargo que él le añadió una nota más por lo que podía considerarse como una canción suya. La treta no coló, le cayó un buen puro y su carrera quedó arruinada para siempre. Menos mal, por otra parte.

Un año después de la desaparición de Mercury en 1991, se hizo un concierto tributo en el estadio de Wembley cantándola a dúo Bowie y Annie Lennox (ver video). Aquí tenéis la original como la grabaron en el estudio suizo del “duque blanco”.

La primera de las versiones es la de los británicos Keane. La publicaron como cara-b del single The Night Sky y los beneficios se destinaron para la ONG War Child. Sin separarse mucho de la genuina, los autores de Is It Any Wonder? (la que más me gusta de su repertorio y que anima a cualquiera) hacen una buena réplica, destacando las notas altas que alcanza Tom Chaplin.

La otra versión es la de la joven promesa Joss Stone, que ha pasado de ser la niña consentida  a ser marginada por su discográfica EMI. Sus abrumadoras ventas de su disco debut, del que colocó 4 millones de copias, no le han servido para ganarse cierta libertad e independencia. Su último larga duración lo grabó sin decir nada a su casa de discos y se lo entregó después ya terminado. Algo que no les hizo mucha gracia a sus jerifaltes, que no permiten que los artistas hagan y deshagan a su antojo. Finalmente, tras un amago de espantada a la competencia, ha visto la luz y su adelanto Free Me ya se puede escuchar por la radio.

Su aportación a la de Queen se debe principalmente al toque soul y a su inconfundible voz, más propia de una cantante negra, algo que contrasta con su juventud y sobre todo con su piel blanca.

Don’t let us get sick
Don’t let us get old
Don’t let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
- Warren Zevon

It is Social Justice Awareness Week again at KUST – the twice yearly opportunity for us to explore an issue of importance to our community, nation or world in the context of music. Great River Radio has decided to tackle the very current and very hot problem of health care reform – the topic that we hear about every day, from the extremist pundits and the self interests and the sincere reformers. It is a very personal issue – if we haven’t found ourselves sick and broken and in need of healing yet, our loved ones have, and it is inevitable that we will all interact with America’s huge and complex health care system at some point in our lives.

We want to take this opportunity to bring to GRR listeners some songs that came to mind (including many requests from our listeners) as we ponder the health care debate that is underway in this country this very day. We will supplement the music this afternoon with some readings and thoughts on the situation – one which is too often obscured by rhetorical excess, misinformation and outright lies. If you have (like we have) tried to sort out the accurate information from the politics, you may have just thrown up your hands in frustration.

Unfortunately, we can’t explain the intricacies of the bill which just passed the House, or what the Senate will do to it next. We can’t tell you how the doctor and hospital you go to price their services. We can’t explain what constitutes a “pre-existing condition” and why it isn’t covered by your insurance. But we can entertain you for two hours with music about health, healing, hospitals, illness and, finally, mercy. Tune in to Great River Radio this afternoon as we tackle health care reform in our own tiny way, and catch music by Panda Bear, Fountains of Wayne, Loudon Wainwright, Tom Waits, Annie Lennox, Conor Oberst, Ben Kweller, Ted Hawkins, The Band, Mary Gauthier, The Replacements and others – songs selected by Brian, Dan and YOU.

Next week we’ll return to regular programming at Great River Radio, bringing you a mix of the music we’ve been listening to lately. Our regular feature, Confluence, will concern our best friends: dogs. Let us know your favorite dog songs and maybe Brian and I will bring Sonny and Finn into the studio!

Playlist
Chest Fever-The Band
Rockin’ Pneumonia and th Boogie Woogie Flu-Dr. John
Sick Day-Fountains of Wayne
Hurt-Johnny Cash
Everybody Hurts-REM
Rattle My Bones-The Suburbs
Everything Is Broken-Bob Dylan
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live-The Del Lords
Don’t Let Us Get Sick-Jill Sobule
Allergies-Paul Simon
Sorry You’re Sick-Ted Hawkins
Doctor Robert-The Beatles
Doctor Blind-Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
Bitter Pill-Annie Lennox
The Healing Game-John Lee Hooker/Van Morrison
That Hospital-Loudon Wainwright III
Hospital Bed-Ben Kweller
Take Me Down To the Hospital-The Replacements
I Don’t Want to Die (In The Hospital)-Conor Oberst
When Water Comes To Life-Cloud Cult
Mercy Now-Mary Gauthier
Handle Me With Care-Travelling Wilburys

I stand at the bathroom mirror, the portal of narcissism, too embarrassed to enter. Where are my enablers? The foundation. the clothes. The curling iron. The hairspray. The eyebrow pencil. They hover over me, and when they are done, I am hidden, but I am here. Now I can go there.

They’re all eyes. Eyes that are scanners running across my barcode. Scan. No beep. Scan. No beep. They’ll have to enter it manually. They ask: “So. What are you?”

I smile. “Glam Rock Peter Pan.”

“Oh.”

“Or Prince as a Pirate.”

“Hm.”

“Or a character from Velvet Goldmine.“

I bag and carry myself away. No merchandise in the public restroom! But I go in. I am not doing this to impress people. I am doing this to impress that person, now standing on the other side of the portal. That person who looks like me, but so much more lovely. I mistake myself for them. We are Annie Lennox at the end of the “Who’s That Girl?” music video: opposite sex symbiosis. Male and Female He created them. Male and Female I combined them.

This is not a costume. It’s a confession.

I don’t need your lust. I don’t need your love.

All I need is His indwelling. All I need is this instant.

In the iris of imagination.

I really don’t know. I was at a pub quiz in the Prince of Wales in Clapham, south-west London the other night, had had a few too many pints of Guinness and vaguely recollect one of my drinking partners saying that along with all of the above he’d been invited to a dinner party at the home of the former wife of Don Powell, drummer with seventies glam-rock band Slade, somewhere in Highgate, north London.

I guess you had to be there to appreciate the conversation, but this, coupled with some time ago going on the Old Highgate Village Walk that takes place every Sunday afternoon, does give me the chance to continue with my Things You Don’t Need To Know About London.

Don Powell, former drummer with Slade, on the right.

With its narrow lanes lined with cottages and Georgian town houses and spectacular views over London, you might guess by its name that Highgate is one of the highest points in London, weighing in at a lofty 131 metres. Highgate Hill, linking Archway and Highgate village, was the route of Europe’s first cable car, operating between 1884 and 1909.  

A rather tenuous claim-to-fame, at the age of 20 Charles Dickens once stayed in a house in North Hill, the highest part of Highgate. Almost opposite Dickens’ former home we have Highpoint I and II – two 1930s apartment blocks described as one of the best examples of early International Style architecture in London. Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank selected Highpoint on his shortlist of Britain’s Best Buildings.

Highpoint I.

The pub tradition of Swearing on the Horns, the pledging by oath one’s dedication to merriment and debauchery, originated in Highgate. Commonly seen as a way of local publicans alleviating gullible travellers of their money, I won’t bore you with detail except to say it involves kicking a pig out of a ditch, kissing the prettiest woman in the pub and saluting a set of horns.

Swearing on the Horns is still practiced to this day at The Wrestlers and Flask pubs, though due to health and safety the traditional horns of a live bull have been replaced by a set of horns from an animal of the dead variety.

 

Highgate School, previously known as the Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School at Highgate, is home to the oldest freemasons lodge in the world. Established in 1565, after 400 years the public boy’s school has eventually opened its gates to the opposite sex.

Former ‘Old Cholmeleians’ include former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, various members of the band Razorlight, cricketer Phil Tuffnell, various classical music composers, Murray Walker, Barry Norman, Geoffrey Palmer, Sir Clive C5 Sinclair, artists, playwrights, actors, MPs, Judges…

Highgate School.

On to North Road, a wide road formerly used to drive cattle into the city of London, and the guided tour takes us to the former home of both Poet Laureate John Betjeman and poet non-laureate, philosopher and opium addict Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Coleridge lived in Highgate until his passing to the great opium den in the clouds. His grandson an Old Chomeleian, he was buried in Highgate School chapel; however, after a row with the council his remains were dug up and reburied just down the road in the crypt of St. Michael’s Church.

St. Michael's Church.

Past the home of comedienne Victoria Wood and the tour arrives at The Grove, one of the most expensive streets in London; home to George Michael, Annie Lennox and Sting.

Across the road and we find the former home of super-sleuth Margaret Rutherford, now home to ex-Python Terry Gilliam.

“Against cold meats was he insured?
For frozen chickens he procured -
brought on the illness he endured,
and never was this Bacon cured”.

(Pip Wilson)

Final stop on the guided walk – the pond-less Pond Square – one of the most sought-after parts of Highgate village. It’s here the guide leaves us with a story of a frozen stuffed chicken that led to the death of Sir Francis Bacon and the haunting of the Ghost Chicken of Pond Square. I won’t bore you with the details.

The Prince of Wales in Clapham does a very good quiz on a Thursday night. Say "to55er" to the barman and you might get a free pint.

It’s been quite a while since my last posting. That has more to do with my schedule than anything else, but it doesn’t take more than half an hour to write an adequate entry, correct? No excuse other than sheer laziness, really.

Anyway, today marks the first day the wonderful, awe-inspiring, motivating, reinvigorating sun sets far too fucking early. Far, far, far too early.

I cannot stand the lack of sunlight. I can’t stand the darkness approaching at 3:30pm. Slowly conquering the last lingering sunlit days: first encroaching on them, then suffocating them, and finally stealing all color from their skies. Oh, but of course, it’s not actually night yet, so we don’t have any pretty stars. Just blackness. We have to endure this shitty situation for the next six months.

Darkness doesn’t matter to some people. They’re still emotionally balanced, regardless of the lighting conditions of the environment. Those people suck (but only because I wish I were one of them).

So I have to find some music that fits the early spread of darkness, the early obscuring of vision, the fact that leaving the house and entering the house is done in darkness every day. That fact that no matter how hard I concentrate, how much my imagination tries, I still can’t place the sun back in the sky. I still can’t see any light at seven o’clock. Some light should still hover around the periphery while eating dinner.

But I’ve had this problem my entire life; I just have to find a way to accept it. That acceptance will come reluctantly, indignantly, and stubbornly. But it has to come, or I won’t survive or succeed.

I find the best kind of music for these types of situations incorporates frustrated, gloomy lyrics within music with positive energy. Emphasis on positive—not just loud or angry; it can be loud, it can be angry, but the underlying tone has to be triumphant.

Good examples: THE GO STATION, Annie Lennox, Bloc Party, Civil Twilight, Guster, Pictures of Then, The Bravery, Great Northern, Ra Ra Riot, Delta Spirit, Woods, Metric, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, The Cloud Room, Elbow, incubus, Josh Ritter, The Killers, The Low Anthem, Matthew Good Band, Mute Math, Passion Pit, Pela (now very, very sadly broken up.  Anytown Graffiti has now reached another level, because I know I’ll never hear anything quite like it again), The Postal Service, Rage Against the Machine, The Rapture, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams, Snow Patrol, The Stills, TV on the Radio, U2, The Uglysuit, The Weakerthans, Wild Light, Wintersleep, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Zutons. Examples from aforementioned bands forthcoming:

Annie Lennox is doing some amazing Humanitarian work. I just updated my “All about Annie” page.. Not much there yet, but it’s slowly growing and opening up like a beautiful Lotus flower!..

Annie’s Recent Mash-Up:

As a celebration of “All Things Annie”

xx

Backstage Blog from Laura Ingle

For a fan of Rock N Roll … it just doesn’t get bigger than this!!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert was the kind of line up that you could only *dream* of making up, just for fun to see who you could think of pairing up on stage to jam.

Who better to tell the story of Rock and Roll (the show’s concept), than the people who have lived it best, along with a little help from their friends.

The shows, featured Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, U2, Paul Simon, Metallica, Jeff Beck Band, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Friends, Simon and Garfunkel, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger… Each band, had it’s own dream list of performers to bring up on the big stage.    Stevie Wonder, jammed with Smokey Robinson, John Legend, and Sting.   At one point, Stevie Wonder busted out a tribute to Michael Jackson and played “The Way You Make Me Feel”  … the place went nuts.  I was standing in the “stage right, house left” area and looked up and saw actor Michael Douglas, his actress wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, actor and concert co-producer Tom Hanks, and his actress wife Rita Wilson dancing in the aisles.  They were really going for it… laughing, singing and had their hands up in the air.  When I looked closer, I saw that Yoko Ono, Robbie Robertson, and Dennis Miller were in the same section (though Miller, Robertson and Ono were not partaking in the dancing in the aisle fun)

Another amazing musical moment; Crosby, Stills, and Nash with Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, B.B. King and Jackson Browne.  Hard rockers Metallica provided a heavy metal dream come true when they invited  Ozzy Osbourne on stage.  One of the more honest, and respectful moments came when lead singer James Hetfield admitted, “We’re not the most jammy kind of band, we’re kind of a tight little unit, we don’t usually let people in”.  Hetfield smirked, then smiled, then asked Ozzy to come on out.   One of my favorite things to see Ozzy do when he performs is that “frog jump” thing that he does – and he did it repeatedly while singing “Iron Man” and “Paranoid”.  What a Rock moment that was.  Look at the bottom of this post for Ozzy talking about his daughter’s upcoming wedding, he really sounds like a concerned dad!    Metallica also had  Ray Davies of The Kinks, and Lou Reed join them on stage.  I mean honestly, isn’t this all enough to make your head spin?

So who’s idea was this anyway?  Well, the team that put together the 2 day event is also quite impressive. Joel Peresman, the CEO of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame pulled in the creative might of actor Tom Hanks, his producing partner Gary Goetzman, singer-songwriter Robbie Robertson, and Academy Award winning-screenwriter Cameron Crowe to produce and film the event for HBO.

Tom Hanks having fun in the press room

When Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson came by the press room Thursday- Hanks talked about helping put this show together like a true music fan. He said he is just like the rest of us, “happy to be in the same venue as all these artists.”

As Tom Hanks was wrapping up his time in the press room, someone asked what his favorite song of 2009 is so far, and why… he cracked everyone up when he said “That Ring On It” song… Check out the video below … (he was referring to Beyonce’s hit song, “Single Ladies” (Put A Ring On It”)

The anniversary show will be presented Thanksgiving weekend on HBO — with lots of behind the scene interviews and unscripted moments.   As Bonnie Raitt said when asked what it was like to be a part of the show and backstage with so many artists… she said “all I can say is… there’s a LOT happening in the hallways around here”.   Indeed.   

Can you imagine what it was like to hang out backstage with U2, while Bono was chatting up Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and Fergie before they all went on stage? 

Check out the slide show at the bottom of this blog from the second night (photo credit Kenny Kramme), and these select shots from Thursday. I wish you could have been there with me, but with this backstage blog pass, doesn’t it feel a little like you were?    Rock on!

Sounds of Silence

James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt in Press Room

Backstage in the Press Room: Crosby Stills Nash

Stevie Wonder backstage at Rock Hall of Fame concert

Laura hangs with Little Stevie Van Zandt

Laura and John Legend after exclusive interview with Fox!

Check out the shots we got in the Press Room during the 2nd night

!!!

Here’s Ozzy on what it was like to be asked to play with Metallica – what he thinks of his daughter getting married, and why. 

done