I’ve been on the road this week (in fact, drove 850 miles in 11 hours on Monday — it wasn’t a great idea, but I will brag about it), so this post isn’t exactly timely. But I want to vent before tomorrow’s post-turkey overdose.

I’m generally not a sports assclown, but I am a huge fan of football, and would like to note that the Chicago Bears lost AGAIN Sunday, 24-20, at home to the Philadelphia Eagles.

But the Bears could just as easily lost to the Eagles, the band, in their current touring lineup:

• Glenn Frey – vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica
• Don Henley – vocals, drums, percussion, guitar
• Joe Walsh – guitars, vocals, keyboards,
• Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals

And Frey has no wind at all because he doobed his way through the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Why do the Bears suck so bad? It has to come from the top: ownership, management, coaching, star players. That’s obvious, but not too interesting.

What’s stunning to me as a current Chicago resident is that the sports base in the greater Chicagoland area actually puts up with this crap. Come on, this is a storied franchise! Why the suckball for so many seasons? And who in ownership is so in love with Rex Grossman that they’ve essentially cloned him as Jay Cutler?

But I don’t put this on Cutler. It takes a village of underperformers to keep things this mediocre, and few QBs could stand in the pocket as their O-line collapses like Iceland’s economy. Not to mention not having a true 1-WR, stand-out backs and ends, et al.

I didn’t grow up a Bears fan, so I feel more objective in my criticism. Being from North Carolina, the choices then were the Atlanta Falcons or Washington Redskins, which is why I pulled for the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Oh, speaking of, here’s hoping the Panthers suck just enough to get their head coach, John Fox, booted so Bill Cowher can step in with little fuss. It may not happen, but it would be sweet.

So the Bears will likely not collapse completely — they play the Ravens and the Rams, although they have to play the Vikings twice in 30 days — but it can’t look good for next season.

Posts like this may explain why Lovie hasn’t yet accepted my friend request on Facebook, though.

Echoes In The Wind Report:

Click here to go to EITW to check Brownsville Station “Smokin’ In The Boys Room”, Mott The Hoople “One of The Boys”, Traffic “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”, Don Henley “Boys of Summer”, Thin Lizzy “The Boys Are Back In Town”, and Mountain “Boys In The Band”

Daniel de los Reyes as a percussionist has worked along side the who’s who of music. To name a few Yanni, Don Henley, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sheryl Crow.

Daniel de los Reyes gives back with his time and talent to enhance the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

Here he is teaching the Opportunity Village clients in his community.

Check out Daniel de los Reyes’s sites:

www.myspace.com/danieldelosreyes

http://www.myspace.com/drumjungleinc

www.youtube.com/user/DanielDeLosReyesDrum

Check out his Video Bio:

If you would like to be notified about Daniel’s personal appearances,

 latest news, YouTube video releases, and more,

please sign up on his mailing list by emailing us at danieldelosreyes@drumjungle.com .

It’s a busy day today, but it’s for a good reason.

Tomorrow, my long-time pals Rick, Rob and Dan come into St. Cloud for our fourth annual Strat-O-Matic baseball tournament. From mid-morning to early evening, we’ll laugh, tell stories, listen to a wide variety of tunes and play a little tabletop baseball along the way.

Once again, Rob is the defending champion. In last year’s tournament, his two-time champ, the 1922 St. Louis Browns, were knocked off in the first round. But he took his second team – the 1995 Colorado Rockies – to the title with a remarkable combination of lots of offense, some good bullpen management and lots of luck. (Even he acknowledges that last part.)

So Rick, Dan and I will try to keep Rob from winning a fourth straight title. For those who are interested, here are the teams that are in this year’s tournament. (For those uninterested, you can skip to the next paragraph.)

Rob: The defending champion 1995 Rockies and the 1922 New York Giants
Rick: The 1976 Phillies and the 1990 Athletics
Dan: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and the 1927 New York Yankees
Me: The 1948 Indians and the 1961 Cincinnati Reds

Whatever happens, the day of the annual tournament is one of the best days of the year for me, a chance to share my home and some very good times with my long-time friends. The Texas Gal puts up with the noise and the disruption with an amazing amount of grace. I imagine that our two annual tournaments (baseball in the autumn and hockey in spring) leave her feeling as if she’s the housemother in a fraternity house for graying sophomores.

Each spring and fall, as we plan our menu and the required grocery and liquor store trips, she’ll remind me of something and say, “That’s for the Saturday the boys are here, so make sure we have enough.”

We’ll have plenty of everything we need tomorrow, when the boys are back in town.

A Six-Pack of Boys
“The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy from Jailbreak [1976]
“Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room” by Brownsville Station from Yeah! [1973]
“Boys in the Band” by Mountain from Climbing! [1970]
“The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley from Building the Perfect Beast [1984]
“One of the Boys” by Mott the Hoople from All The Young Dudes [1972]
“The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” by Traffic from The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys [1971]

The most anthemic of these is the Thin Lizzy track (though Don Henley comes close). With its almost relentless guitar riffs, “The Boys Are Back In Town” dares you not to tap your feet or bob your head or pound out a rhythm on the steering wheel. And if you’re in the car, there’s no way you’re not going to turn the radio up all the way. The single was Thin Lizzy’s only hit, peaking at No. 12 during the summer of 1976. Oh, and that line about “drivin’ all the old men crazy”? It’s a little disquieting to realize that if I were anyone in the song these days, I’d be one of those old men.

I always thought Brownsville Station’s “Smoking in the Boys’ Room” was kind of a silly song, but then, it came along a little bit after I left high school and before hardly any anti-smoking regulations came to our college campus: Smoking was definitely allowed in school. But it moves along nicely, boogies a little bit, and it does have a hell of a hook. The single went to No. 3 during the winter of 1973-74.

Mountain’s “Boys in the Band” is a subtle track, almost delicate at moments, that seems to belie the band’s reputation for guitar excess. But the elegiac tone fits perfectly for a song that has its protagonist saying goodbye to his band and life on the road:

“We play tunes today
“Leaving memory of yesterday.
“All the circles widen getting in the sun,
“All the seasons spinning all the days one by one”

The title of Don Henley’s album, Building the Perfect Beast, fits, because Henley darn near built the perfect pop song in “The Boys of Summer.” Backed on that track by a stellar quartet – Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers, Steve Porcaro of Toto, studio pro Danny Kortchmar and bassist Larry Klein – Henley melds haunting music and literate and thoughtful lyrics into a cohesive whole. And you can tap your feet to it, too. (Or pound on the steering wheel, if you’re driving behind that Cadillac with the Grateful Dead sticker on it.) The single went to No. 5 during its fourteen weeks on in the Top 40 as 1984 turned into 1985.

Hey kids! Hear that odd sound at the beginning of Mott the Hoople’s “One of the Boys”? When we old farts talk about dialing a telephone, that’s what it sounded like. That’s an honest-to-god dial telephone. There are other positives to the song, too, of course: It’s a crunchy piece of rock,  with its chords shimmering in the glam persona of Ian Hunter and his band, and it’s another opportunity to bruise your hands on the steering wheel.

On a Saturday sometime around 1975, I was sitting in the basement rec room, reading and listening to Traffic’s The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. I’d borrowed the album from someone – maybe Rick – and was trying to decide if I should shell out some own coin for my own copy. I liked what I heard and was thinking about heading downtown later in the day to buy the record. As the languid title track played, I heard the door at the top of the basement stairs open and I recognized my dad’s tread. Steve Winwood sang:

“If you had just a minute to breathe
“And they granted you one final wish . . .”

My dad, coming into the room, sang. “Would you wish for fish?”

And from that moment on, every time I’ve heard the song, I remember my dad being silly. I miss him.

In today’s episode of What MamaKitt’s Brain Stores in the Place Where the Basic Math Should Be, we discover a squirrel, an Eagle, and a curly-haired lawyer.

OK, the squirrel is really a metaphor for my brain, which once again astounds me with its oddness. To wit: why, when my brother once told me that his old girlfriend thought that Don Henley sang, “Your breasts get shinin’ in the sun” in “Boys of Summer,” did my brain scurry away with that little acorn of information and add it to the growing acorn pile?

She was lovely, that old girlfriend. I was probably seven when they started dating, and ten when they broke up, so highly impressionable and quite captivated by her long, curly hair, big smile, easy laugh, and glamorous law-student path. My sisters, much closer to her age, became quite friendly with her, and when she and my brother broke up — reportedly over a disagreement about procreation, but I suspect there were other factors at play — at least one of them stayed in touch with her for years. I always wondered, right up until this very moment, why I hadn’t. Now I see that it’s because I was a child, and she was not. I rarely thought of myself as a child in those days, because I was surrounded by grown-ups, and thought I fit in pretty well. But some facts are inescapable.

While I was on a visit to see my brother on the West Coast several years ago — ten or fifteen years, maybe? sheesh — he announced that we were going to lunch with the old girlfriend. I found that vaguely scandalous, although they apparently kept up a close and happy friendship. I also found it more than vaguely awkward to be there, assuming they had deep and intimate things to discuss, so I mostly played shrinking violet and tried to pretend I wasn’t present. For a long time that was my MO in awkward situations, pretending I wasn’t there. Trouble with that plan is, you still are there. So then the people you’re with just think you’re silent and creepy and, if they read too much into it, upset.

Occasionally my brother still reports in on the old girlfriend — her life has been rocky, with some unhappy stepmotherhood followed by a divorce. I don’t get the sense that she was ever as blithe as her curly hair and easy laugh gave me to believe, but I wonder if things could have been different. I wonder if my brother ever wonders … what if.

I do know that he has no memory of her misheard Don Henley lyric, or of telling me about it. That I know because I mentioned it casually when we heard the song a year or so ago, fully expecting him to laugh knowingly. Instead, he was befuddled. Because, you see, he probably has math in his brain. Not nuts.

The Eagles were the quintessential 70’s soft-country-rock band, an amalgam of the pure country-rock of Poco and the harmonies and jangle guitar-rock of the Byrds with far greater recording production supporting their obvious talents as performers and songwriters (Eagles playlist here). The Eagles defined the 70s L.A. soft pop-rock sound and opened the way for the 80s light MOR country-pop sound that members Don Henley and Glen Frey exploited with multi-platinum albums. In the 70s the Eagles produced five #1 singles, 14 Top 20 hits overall and six #1 albums (including two of the best selling albums of all time, 1975’s Eagles: Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and 1976’s Hotel California. By the end of 20th century, the Eagles were still going strong, although mostly as a huge selling retro-band, with an audience leaning toward the “classic rock” sounds of the 70s era the Eagles dominated. The band released sporadic reunion and “live” revival albums until Long Road Out Of Eden, their first album of any kind in 13 years and their first studio release in over 20 years, came out two years ago on October 30, 2007. Long Road Out Of Eden is a throw-back collection of songs that mirror their peak years (and initially available only at Wal-Mart Stores, the colossal global discount retailer). In an age where great rock music is limited, even a retro-album like Long Road Out Of Eden is a relief. It’s on my buy list and recommended for any Eagles fan or lover of 70s soft-rock.

Long Road Out Of Eden is now available (not just at Wal-Mart) as download tracks from iTunes (click here) and as a CD from Amazon (click here).

Eu tenho uma paixão nada secreta por versões de músicas. Acho interessante ver como outros artistas interpretam determinadas canções. Recentemente, inspirado pelo texto da minha amiga Thais Kuzman (no site Colherada Cultural) sobre regravações interessantes de artistas, resolvi explorar essas músicas que tanto me atraem.

Muitos artistas escolhem músicas bastante inusitadas para fazer covers e versões, o que acaba mostrando, também, as diferentes influências em suas carreiras. Por exemplo, é difícil imaginar uma banda que mistura Death Metal, Metalcore e Prog Metal (Between the Buried and Me) tocando covers como Counting Crows (Colorblind) e Blind Melon (Change). Nestes dois casos, a banda não “transformou” as músicas para se adequar ao estilo da banda. Mas, eles trouxeram uma nova interpretação às canções, mostrando toda a qualidade de seus músicos.

Com isso tudo dito, eu apresento algumas das versões de músicas que eu gosto. Já aviso que este é um post que deverá ter novas partes pois, ao começar a escrevê-lo, reparei que deixei muita coisa boa de fora! Então, vejam algumas das versões que recomendo:

Johnny Cash – Hurt
Versão original: Nine Inch Nails

Johnny Cash expõe suas dores em "Hurt", um dos últimos singles de sua carreira.

Esta canção foi uma das últimas gravações deste grande artista country, presente no último álbum que lançou em vida. Hurt, originalmente do Nine Inch Nails, ganha bastante força na voz de Cash. É curioso notar como a letra – que faz referências a dor, uso de drogas e à perda de pessoas queridas –, uma das mais fortes letra de Trent Reznor, se encaixa perfeitamente à vida de Cash. Dessa forma, o artista conseguiu interpretar a canção de uma forma muito pessoal, conseguindo até mesmo apropriar-se dela. Hurt também tem um vídeo-clipe, com tomadas de Cash tocando a música na casa em que viveu seus últimos 30 anos, além de imagens de arquivo de toda a vida do artista.

Trent Reznor tornou-se um grande fã da versão que Cash fez de sua música e, até mesmo, comentou que:

I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure.

(Alternative Press, nº 194. Setembro de 2004)

Punk Goes 80's

Punk Goes…

Uma fonte de ótimas versões é, sem dúvida alguma, a série Punk Goes…, da gravadora Fearless Records. Nesta série, bandas de gêneros ligados ao punk (em sua maioria pop-punk, post-hardcore e alternative rock) gravam músicas de artistas de algum tema específico. Duas das minhas versões favoritas se encontram no álbum Punk Goes 80’s.

Gatsbys American Dream – Just Like Heaven
Versão original: The Cure

Gatsbys American Dream escolheram a canção do The Cure para gravar na coletânea.

Quando eu vi pela primeira vez que o Gatsby’s gravaria Just Like Heaven, já tinha certeza que seria muito boa. Just Like Heaven é minha música favorita do The Cure e Gatsbys é uma das bandas mais interessantes que surgiu nos últimos anos. Essa combinação não tinha como dar errado.

A declaração de amor que Robert Smith escreveu para sua então namorada ganha ainda mais mistério e emoção com a bateria quebrada e as diversas camadas sonoras que a banda adicionou. A música original foi eleita commo uma das 50 melhores canções de amor de todos os tempos pela revista Entertainment Weekly e é uma das canções que mostra o lado alegre do cantor da banda.

Midtown – Your Love
Versão original: The Outfield

Midtown se separou em 2005, mas deixou uma boa impressão. (Frances Roberts/The New York Times)

Midtown é uma banda que sempre fez questão de mostrar sua grande influência de hard rock e rock clássico, entre suas canções pop-punks, buscando um diálogo entre os dois estilos. Para esta versão, o grupo procurou fazer o mesmo, mesclar seu estilo com um toque do pop-rock que marca a canção original, adaptando-a aos anos 2000.

A própria escolha da Your Love já é bastante interessante. The Outfield pode ser considerado um “one-hit-wonder”, pois dificilmente ouve-se falar de outra música da banda que não seja esta. Contudo, esta é uma canção com a cara dos anos 80, que esbarra um pouco no rock de arena que era extremamente popular na época. A letra fala sobre um homem que tem um caso enquanto sua namorada está de férias.

O mais interessante da versão do Midtown é que ela consegue ser fiel à versão original e ao som da banda. A introdução e o final da música, com teclado e bateria eletrônica dá um toque especial para este cover.

Talisman feat Jeff Scott Soto – Frozen
Versão original: Madonna

Frozen é considerada um marco na carreira de Madonna por diversos motivos. Primeiramente, a canção apresenta uma mudança radical para a cantora, com o uso de tons eletrônicos mais obscuros, arranjos de cordas e orquestrações com influência oriental e uma forma de cantar explorando tons antes desconhecidos da diva. A música também marca a transição da Material Girl para a Spiritual Woman.

A música ganha uma roupagem hard rock, na versão do Talisman. A banda explora o arranjo de orquestração da versão original por toda a canção e aplica sobre ela guitarras distorcidas e uma bateria com bastante força. A potente voz de Jeff Scott Soto surge então para coroar esta ótima versão.

Versão ao vivo, a qualidade do áudio não está 100%. Para ouvir a versão original, acesse este vídeo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmCobOyer8).

A canção também tem uma versão bastante interessante interpretada pelo músico francês Pascal Obispo com a canadense Natasha Saint-Pier.

The Ataris – The Boys of Summer
Versão original: Don Henley

The Ataris tocando em show de televisão na África do Sul (Divulgação)

Para muitos o nome Don Henley pode soar familiar, mas apenas isso. Ele é o baterista e vocalista do Eagles, que a partir de 1982 lançou uma carreira solo extremamente premiada. Seu maior hit solo é, sem dúvida, The Boys of Summer. Curiosamente, a versão do The Ataris também se tornou o single de maior sucesso da banda.

A música tem como sua principal temática a passagem dos anos. A transição da juventude, em direção ao que podemos chamar de “vida adulta” é marcada pela conservação de um relacionamento: “My Love for you Will still be strong, after the boys of Summer have gone”.

É interessante perceber como essa canção se encaixa na carreira do The Ataris e, também, no álbum So Long, Astoria (2003). O álbum apresenta uma banda amadurecendo, deixando um pouco para trás o pop-punk que trata sobre amor adolescente e diversão pura dos discos anteriores. A música-título So Long, Astoria (referência ao filme The Goonies, de 1985) mostra exatamente essa mudança, dizendo que a vida é tão boa quanto as memórias que fazemos dela (“life is/only/as good as the memories we make”) e mostrando uma vida de alegria.

Para mim, além de dar mais vida à música, The Ataris conseguiu fazer com que a canção tornasse “deles”, contextualizando dentro da carreira e do momento que a banda passava. O necessário para mostrar que uma grande canção pode ser eterna.

Chris Cornell – Billie Jean
Versão original: Michael Jackson

Chris Cornell dá nova vida ao clássico de Michael Jackson.

Outra versão que combina o grande artista com a grande música é a versão de Billie Jean de Chris Cornell. Ambos dispensam apresentação: uma das mais famosas canções de Michael Jackson, na voz do ex-vocalista do Soundgarden e do Audioslave.

A meu ver, Cornell deu uma identidade à canção, com sua voz única e um feel muito mais voltado ao blues. A música ganha muita emoção e força. A linha de baixo, que marca a versão original, é abandonada e a voz de Cornell dialoga com uma guitarra que me lembrou bastante a melancolia de Jimmy Page em Baby I’m Gonna Leave You.

Bluegrass Tribute

Recentemente, surgiram séries que fazem tributos “inusitados” a bandas de diversos estilos. String Quartets, Piano Versions e, um dos meus favoritos, Bluegrass tributes, são alguns deles. Deste último, dois em particular me chamaram bastante atenção: Strummin’ with the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen e Fade to Bluegrass: The Bluegrass Tribute to Metallica.

David Lee Roth with the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band – Jump
Versão original: Van Halen

Jump é uma música que dispensa qualquer tipo de introdução. Um clássico da década do hard rock da década de 80, a introdução de teclado é, provavelmente, um dos riffs mais lembrados de todos os tempos.

O resultado ficou muito bom. A qualidade é inquestionável e os vocais de David Lee Roth, combinados com um arranjo de primeira, fazem desta versão, no mínimo curiosa. O álbum também conta com uma ótima versão de Eruption, tocada no banjo, para deixar qualquer guitarrista de boca aberta.

Iron Horse – Fuel
Versão original: Metallica

Devo admitir que Fuel está longe de ser uma das minhas músicas preferidas do Metallica e o mesmo acontece no álbum Fade to Bluegrass: The Bluegrass Tribute to Metallica (que chegou a ganhar um volume 2). A escolha de Fuel para comentar se deu, especialmente, porque a música acaba crescendo com esta versão bluegrass.

A canção original é bastante agressiva, pesada e rápida. E, curiosamente, seu tempo encaixa-se perfeitamente no som do bluegrass. Destaque para o belo Jam que a banda faz no meio da música.

The Cardigans – Iron Man
Versão original: Black Sabbath

A suave voz de Nina Persson traz nova dimensão a este clássico do heavy metal (DAVBAR Images, davbar.com)

A doce voz de Nina Persson cantando versos como “Planning his vengeance/That he will soon unfold/Now the time is here/For Iron Man to spread fear” soa até mesmo irônico. Transformar uma música sobre  um vilão vingativo, que é extremamente agressiva, em uma baladinha foi uma grande sacada do Cardigans.

O contraste entre a versão original e esta é tão grande que chega a parecer outra música. E isso que deixa tudo tão interessante. Para quem conheceu o Cardigans com seu grande sucesso, Lovefool, nunca imaginaria que eles poderiam ser influenciados por Black Sabbath. Ainda, o riff clássico de Iron Man, reconhecido a distância por qualquer roqueiro, ganha uma interpretação quase surf music nesta versão.

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World
Versões originais: Judy Garland/Louis Armstrong

Você com certeza já ouviu esta versão, em que o já falecido cantor Israel Kamakawiwo’ole interpreta estes dois clássicos da música mundial somente ao som de seu ukelele. Além de unir duas das mais belas canções escritas no século passado, a simplicidade do instrumental aliado à suave voz deste havaiano faz dela a trilha sonora perfeita para diversas situações.

A versão tornou-se um fenômeno cultural sem igual, sendo incorporada a diversos filmes como Encontro Marcado e Como se Fosse a Primeira Vez, e também programas de TV, como ER (Plantão Médico), Scrubs e Cold Case.

QUIETLY TO GO

Quietly to go—quietly in the cool of May—

Open window, a rainy day, a chair and a book—

A quiet way—the little way—in that little life

That pinches life if you don’t watch—contained

In the known place and the loved place—simply

And simply to sleep.

Madly to go— in the heat of July—madly—

The month that brought you in—a flash of

Red on the highway—the music of youth

Moving you there—Don Henley, U2—a

Glimpse of the Pacific—at sunset—the

Flash of red, the screech of tires—the

Mid-air flip—still in view that patch of

Pacific—anticipating the landing—there’s

Time to ponder in the descent—waiting

For the beheading and imminent decimation—

The pause before the release of blending with

Asphalt, DNA becoming forever a part of Pacific

Coast Highway that no rains will ever wash away—

An innovation—your new birth—this much-improved

Day at glorious sunset—in motion and moving through

Shattered glass—so unlike the quiet way, the little way—

The inside kind of curling up and going out in sprinkles—

The chair by the open window, book on the little table—

To go, madly to go—it is not September in ’55—it is now,

And the mid-air bumble bee ride is drawing to its completion—

There will be closure—and your final thought

1992/2009

Dan Davis, © 2009

Oktober, jag har sett min första frostnatt. Sommaren är definitivt slut och visst känns det en smula vemodigt. Dags att tända några klyschiga ljus, dels för att elementen inte riktigt vaknat, dels för att… Okej, okej, jag gillar eld. Ett inbyggt motstånd mot att muskelminnet och instinkterna tar vid, sätter tofflor på fötterna och kokar baljor med te på kvällen. Fan vad sentimentalt allt blev, jag måste nästan fira av med en kanondänga för att förvirra läget ytterligare.

Och den är till dig, Jessica. “I can tell you my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone.”

Det trodde du inte, va? Stöddiga, störiga jävla Jenny har en smörig ådra. Och dessutom har jag namnsdag i dag, säg grattis eller dra åt helvete. Puss!

Rock God Cred Report:

Click here to check The Carpenters covering the Eagles’ 70’s classic “Desperado”

Buy “Desperado”…get the original by the lads…plus some underrated gems.

Don Henley 2009 Tour Dates:
11/4 – Mashantucket, CT – Foxwoods Casino
11/6 – Windsor, Ontario – The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
11/9 – Chicago, IL – Rosemont Theatre
11/11 – Boston, MA – Wang Theatre
11/14 – Atlantic City, NJ – Caesars Atlantic City
11/17 – Hamilton, Ontario – Copps Coliseum
11/18 – London, Ontario – John Labatt Centre
11/20 – Norfolk, VA – Constant Convocation Center

Lezers,

Vanavond om 23.18uur begint officieel de Herfst. Aanleiding, dunkt ons, voor 3 gepaste momenten van muziek. U heeft ze al vaker voorbij zien komen, maar dit zijn nu eenmaal de nummers die wij traditioneel draaien als de zomer tot een einde komt. Wij schenken hier het laatste restje Prosecco op (zodat we plaats hebben voor een flesje whiskey). Wij wensen u een voorspoedige Herfst toe, met ruimhartige open haarden en vallende blaadjes bij de vleet.

Don Henly – Boys of Summer

Rialto – Summer’s Over

Cold Chisel – Last Wave Of Summer

“I Saw Him Standing There” by Tiffany was a cover version of The Beatles‘ song “I Saw Her Standing There“. It was released on her debut self-titled album, changing the lyrics to “him” instead of “her”. It was produced by George Tobin.

The song was the third single from the album and another hit for Tiffany. It reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of April 23, 1988.

“Can’t Stop A Heartbeat”, a fan favorite there, was released in Japan before the rest of the world on the b-side on the Japanese release of “I Saw Him Standing There” because it was made for a chocolate TV commercial.

The b-side in the US was “Mr. Mambo”. This one is hardly worthy, even for a b-side.

I like “Can’t Stop A Heartbeat”, probably because it sounds almost exactly like another track I love: Don Henley’s 1984 “Boys of Summer”. Click here to hear for an excerpt of both songs.

There’s another track on the “Tiffany” album that sounds like a rip-off: “Feelings of Forever” is very similar to Bryan Adam’s 1984 hit “Heaven”.

This Japan only remix EP CD was released in 1988.

Label:

Warner-Pioneer Corporation

Catalog Number:

28XD-934

Track Listing and Details:

1. I Think We’re Alone Now (Extended Version) (6:38) Produced by George Tobin. Remixed by Bill Smith and John Duarte

2. I Saw Him Standing There (Dance Mix (6:31) Produced by George Tobin. Mixed by George Tobin and Bill Smith. Arranged by John Duarte

3. Can’t Stop A Heartbeat (4:49) Produced by George Tobin

4. Mr. Mambo (5:48) Produced by George Tobin

5. Can’t Stop A Heartbeat (Singalong Version) (4:37) Produced by George Tobin

Rip Information:

Source: CD

Format: mp3

Bitrate: 320 kbps

Tiffany – I Saw Him Standing There (Japan Remix EP CD)

Password: steptothebeat

#247  Don Henley > Boys Of Summer
’The Boys Of Summer’ är det perfekta soundtracket till sommaren.  Don Henley, eller ”the voice of Eagles” som han också kallas, har en av pop/rock-historiens mest fantastiska röster…

John Fogerty and co. are back with a new album of great covers and original material with special guests Bruce Springsteen and Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit.

Disc: 1
1. Paradise (John Prine)
2. Never Ending Song of Love (Bonnie Bramlett/Delaney Bramlett)
3. Garden Party featuring Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit (Rick Nelson)
4. I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)(Buck Owens)
5. Back Home Again (John Denver)
6. I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me) (Ray Price/Rusty Gabbard)
7. Change in the Weather (John Fogerty)
8. Moody River (Gary Bruce)
9. Heaven’s Just a Sin Away (Jerry Gillespie)
10. Fallin’ Fallin’ Fallin’ (D. Deckleman/J. Guillot/J.D.Miller)
11. Haunted House (Robert L. Geddins)
12. When Will I Be Loved featuring Bruce Springsteen (Phil Everly)
Disc: 2
1. The Making of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again
2. Acoustic performances
3. Trailer for upcoming DVD release “Live from the Royal Albert Hall”

order the album here

“Don’t look back, you can never look back.” ~ Don Henley

The party was in full swing long before I got there. I had hung back as I so often do; resisting the pressure, the nagging feeling that I was missing something; that I was, perish the thought, out of it.

But, finally, about six months ago, partly out of curiosity but mostly in an attempt to stay current, to fully experience the times in which I live, I gave in. I signed up for Facebook.

I pretty much knew what to expect. I enjoyed, at least initially, the predictable flurry of high-school friends and acquaintances that came out of the woodwork. And, forewarned, I had braced myself for the residual teenage angst that followed. Funny how the popular kids still prevail in middle-age, banded together, all these years later, in chummy little cyber-cliques.

And as someone who never had much success mixing friends (Earth Day 1989, in particular, memorable for all the wrong reasons), I knew entering the world of online social networking meant the end of my heretofore comfortably compartmentalized life.

What has surprised me, though, is the realization that we now live in a world in which it is virtually impossible to leave anyone behind, even when doing so might be the most prudent, and even the healthiest, thing to do.

Gone are the days when friends drifted apart naturally, often without explanation or even acknowledgement. Indeed, we have entered an era in which they very concept of the long-lost friend or the long-lost love has gone the way of the 8-track tape and the rotary dial.

Of course, you can take the overt action of ignoring or even “unfriending” someone. But, thanks to six degrees of separation and the vast, tangled web that is Facebook, you never know when a painful reminder will appear on your computer screen. It’s harder than ever to forget let alone forgive.

Some of this is old news, I know. My group of classmates originally reconnected back in 2002 via an MSN message board. But after an intense flurry of emails and posts, and a couple of real-world reunions, things calmed down considerably. A few friendships had been genuinely rekindled, but most everyone else returned to their current lives, their families and jobs.

But Facebook is different. Maybe it’s the constant status updates, the relentless, real-time musings, the in-your-face minutiae of old friends who, in spite of their accessibility these past few years, had remained safely tucked away in the corner of my consciousness reserved for the past.

As so many of us of a certain age reconnect online, I can’t help but wonder about those who have grown up with social-networking sites. What will it be like to never have the pleasure of reuniting with anyone because you’ve never been able to lose track of them in the first place?

And what about perspective? How will the ability to effortlessly stay in touch with everyone we’ve ever known affect our ability to move forward, to grow emotionally, intellectually, spiritually? How do we learn from the past if we’re never truly able to leave it behind?

I wonder, too, about the creative process. How many artists and writers have found their muse in memory, their inspiration in the hazy, lovely ache of nostalgia?

These are some of the things I find myself struggling with as I start over, alone, in this new place.

It can feel a little daunting: this new terrain, the forging of new friendships, the discovery and evolution of self. It would be easy to rely on comfortable connections, to broadcast the details of my new life and wait for the comments and encouragement to come forth.

The truth is, it’s just not my style. And so I go it alone, without a Greek chorus, without the people of my distant and recent pasts looking over my shoulder. I focus instead on the path ahead, a path I have chosen for the very fact that it will lead me, finally, away from them.

I was just surfing through youtube when I chanced upon Don Henley’s beautiful song that in his own words, “takes 2 mins to sing but took 42 years to write” – “Heart of the Matter”. Listening to it made me think back on my own relationship of 5 years that came to an end in February of last year but much to the amazement of many of my friends, evolved back into the friendship it had originally blossomed from in the first place.

Just looking around at the all too common phenomenon of couples becoming arch enemies after break-ups, don’t we all ask that question sometimes – Can there be friendship after love?

What happens to all the memories shared? Wasn’t the relationship a friendship too? Should friends be divided by a kiss? Must the friendship end along with the love?

Once upon a time, I declared that I would never be friends with my ex – no way. A break up had to be clean and friendship after love was just a figment of our imaginations. No, it could never happen.

But, sometimes, life can be so strange in a beautiful way.

When I broke up with my long term and first serious boyfriend of five years, I thought I’d lost my best and oldest friend. He was not just my boyfriend of 5 years but for 4 years before we had gotten together, we were best friends who knew we could always count on each other and share heartaches openly without fearing judgment. As the relationship wound to an end, the hardest part was having to let go not just of a lover but a best friend of 9 years.Convinced that ex-es could never be friends again, I forced myself to move on, as if everything had never happened. It hurt so badly, though, that the only way I could move on was to delete all past photos, block his contact and trash all his emails.

Yet, life eventually proved me wrong.

Yes, there can be friendship after love but as the song poignantly advocates, really at the heart of the matter is forgiveness.

It’s so tempting to be self-righteous and defensive as relationships fall apart – He was wrong… No, she was wrong. But, at the end of the day, before we jump in to accuse the other party, can we look at ourselves in the mirror and say that we had done absolutely nothing wrong and that the other party had never once been good to us?

I couldn’t.

And, that’s why when he started making the effort to seek my forgiveness, I made that critical decision – to seek forgiveness and to forgive.

Many people say they need time to forgive but sometimes, forgiveness is about a decision – to put everything behind and to appreciate the good in the person standing before you.

Undeniably it’s hard to forgive people who have hurt us but won’t there come a day when we too will need forgiveness from someone?

Lezers,

vandaag trekt uw Redactie zuidwaarts op een tripje naar Zeeland. Het belooft een lekkere dag te worden met een temperatuur van tegen de 25 graden. Desalniettemin dringt het langzaam tot ons door dat het morgen september is. Langzamerhand raakt de zomer op.

Natuurlijk: het kan nog heel mooi worden. Maar: het kan ook niet meer mooi worden. Laat ons de zomer aanroepen om ons nog een paar weken bij te staan. Lezers, wij gaan ervantussen om het laatste stukje zomer van dichtbij op te zuigen…

Cold Chisel – Last Wave Of Summer

Don Henley – Boys Of Summer

Aerosmith- Girls of Summer

It’s LATE. Th’ Lip has had WAY TOO MUCH “vitamin “T”. This is a mighty SOGGY rendition of Don Henley’s 80’s classic Teaxs drinking song.

Can Lip hit the high notes? Will his head hit the floor? Can he even FINISH this tune?