Ice MC! Hahaha!!! Jag hade glömt bort att man lyssnade på det här…. letade egentligen efter en helt annan låt men sprang på den här gamla godingen så jag var bara tvungen att lägga upp den….

Egentligen var det den här låten jag letade efter. Har ett minne av att jag hade den på mitt “favvoband”… minns några av kändisnamnen han “sjunger” i låten och har letat efter låten i flera år! NU äntligen hittade jag den! I mitt minne var det en skitbra låt. Jag tyckte verkligen det!! hahaha! Tänk vad smaken kan förändras!!

Året var 1990. Båda dessa låtar fanns på favoritkassetbandet som gick hett i freestylen… det var tider det….
Här är fler låtar som fanns på samma band….

1. Nothing really compares to having a well-informed hairstylist. The skinhead look went out during the early ’80s.

2. You’ll likely get a memo from work if all you’ve been doing for the past two weeks is “go out every night and sleep all day,”  unless of course your work involves prostitution.

3. If you’ve just come out of a relationship that doesn’t let you “do whatever (you) want,” that relationship is called ’slavery.’

4. Having “dinner in a fancy restaurant” is overrated. Really good microwave dinner, on the other hand, is the perfect date food.

5. To answer the semi-rhetorical question (“Tell me baby where did I go wrong?”), you look like some dude with mange when you shaved your hair because you wanted to skimp on hair care products and trips to the salon. (edg)

This song is great, huh?  Most people know that Prince wrote it, I’m not bending any minds with that factoid.  But I was wondering today how those two ever collaborated, as they seem like they live in different universes.  So I looked it up, and holy shit do they have history.  Click to read it.

In a 2007 interview, the always weirdly angry Sinead told the Mirror:

“I met him twice when Nothing Compares 2 U was a hit,” she recalls. “At the time he had a lot of female protégées and I had covered his song without having anything to do with him. He invited me to his house in Los Angeles and started to give out to me for swearing in interviews. When I told him to go f*** himself he got very upset and became quite threatening, physically. I ended up having to escape.”

But he’s such a small guy.

“He can pack a punch,” she says. “A few blows were exchanged. All I could do was spit. I spat on him quite a bit.”

In 2005 when someone yelled out “PRINCE!” during one of her concerts, she yelled “Fuck that fucking midget!”

I think I like Charlie Murphy’s Prince story better.  Any story that ends in pancakes, really.

Cool Songs of the Moment (Well, since some of these are oldies, then maybe not of the moment. Just songs I have on repeat.):

• Something in the Air – Thunderclap Newman
• We Belong Together – Los Lobos
• Nothing Compares 2 U – The Coconutz
• Finishing School – Dashboard Confessional
• J’ai Cru Entendre – Louis Garrel & Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet

Lame Songs of the Moment:

• Teenagers Hayley Williams
• Bad Romance Lady GaGa
• Tiny Dancer Ironik
• anything Owl City (C’mon man. They’re way overplayed right now. *sigh* I used to love them.)
• Meet Me on the Equinox Death Cab for Cutie (because it’s part of the New Moon soundtrack, and Twilight sucks. Why, Death Cab, why?)

That’s it.

It's been seven hours and  fifteen days
since you took your love away
I go out every night and sleep all day
since you took your love away
since you've been gone I can do whatever I want
I can see whomever I choose
I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant
but nothing
I said nothing can take away these blues,

'cause nothing compares
nothing compares to you

It's been so lonely without you here
like a bird without a song
nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling
tell me baby where did I go wrong?
I could put my arms round every boy I see
but they'd only remind me of you
I went to the doctor guess what he told me
guess what he told me
he said girl you better try to have fun
no matter what you do
but he's a fool

'cause nothing compares
nothing compares to you

All the flowers that you planted momma
in the backyard
all died when you went away
I know that living with you, baby, was sometimes hard
but I'm willing to give it another try

nothing compares
nothing compares to you 

nothing compares
nothing compares to you 

nothing compares
nothing compares to you 

I’ve long thought that people who write letters to the editor aren’t held accountable for much of what they write. This is an attempt to change that.

Dear John James,

Your letter to Esquire, which received its own byline online, starts off so promisingly. You come off immediately as more than the standard reader, as one who thinks deeply about music, about art, about music as art. Your case for the cover song is a good one, and one I appreciate and endorse.

However, John James, like Brett Favre, you lose credibility the more you continue. First, you are unable to resist the human urge to write at length about your own experience. You can argue that I care about why you love cover songs: The whole “art as a crossroads of the predictable and unexpected” is a theory that transcends personal tastes. You cannot argue, though, that I care about how you came to love cover songs. The intimate details of your adolescence, your strong sense of personal nostalgia for a bygone era of music, and the editorialization that almost inherently accompanies them are of no interest to me.

Your musing on music and its connection to those who listen to it strikes me as false. I do not, within two or three questions, ask acquaintances what kind of music they like or what bands they are into. Acquaintances do not ask me those questions. More problematically, your idea that you can glean so much about a person based on a cursory glance of their record collection somewhat undermines your prior thoughts about the cover song—viz. “Is it the singer or the song?” You seem to suggest in your letter that cover songs have, in a large way, defined your musical tastes. And yet, “cover” is not a kind of music; it is not a genre, but rather an approach. Cover songs are more about artistic interpretation than musical genre, and thus I would say that I could glean very little about you from your long and diverse list of cover songs aside from “John James really likes cover songs.”

And therein lies the biggest issue here: Your preference for cover songs crosses the line between passion and zealotry. One-thousand eight-hundred and ninety-two cover songs is too big a list. It is way too big a list. It is at least one-thousand, three-hundred and ninety-two songs too long. By making your list of suggested cover songs this outrageously long, you lose most of your critical credibility. Listening to and approving this many cover songs implies a sense of obsession, a sense that you, John James, are incapable of acknowledging a cover song that, for whatever reason, just doesn’t work. It does not matter that, in your letter, you point out that the list represents maybe one in 10 cover songs you’ve encountered; 1,892 speaks for itself. (And at the same time, if someone asked me for a list of suggested listening or reading, I like to think that I’d pass along less than 10% of what I’ve ever encountered in that area. Perhaps I am not as readily satisfied with art as you evidently are.)

When the list bloats to this long, the obligation of parsing it down passes from the purported expert (John James) to the admitted neophyte (me). Instead of someone who has listened to all of these songs and who has proclaimed a deeper understanding of the art of the cover song telling me what I should listen to, I, who have not listened to 1% of these songs and who has never proclaimed more than a passing interest in the occasional cover song, have to do it myself. I have to decide which cover of “Hey Ya” is most worth it (Booker T’s, no doubt) and which Beatles song I most want to hear a cover version of (“Eleanor Rigby,” but it’s close), and even which cover of “Wonderwall” by Cat Power I’d prefer to hear (neither).*

*Your credibility with me takes a bigger hit when you include a cover song performed by “Sad Kermit.” And of a song of which Johnny Cash did a much better cover. And no Sinead O’Connor on “Nothing Compares 2 U”? Really? There are 1,892 BETTER cover songs than one of the top songs of the ‘90s? And this coming from a guy who loves Pope John Paul II.

In closing, John James, your list of 10 favorites is too short (and, it seems, somewhat editorially contrived); your list of 1,892 in all is much too long. Take a lesson from Henry Clay, and compromise. We’ll both be better for it.

Your Friend,

Tim

The controversial Sinéad O’Connor is fairly well-known, but I’d be hard-pressed to recall any of her songs, with one exception: Nothing Compares 2 U.

I was surprised to find out that Nothing was penned by Prince back in 1985, but it was Sinéad’s cover in 1990 that propelled her (and the song) to worldwide recognition.

I wouldn’t have seen the song as a good candidate for a dance cover, but that’s precisely what we have now from Consoul Trainin, one of the names used by Greek producer John Efthimiou (a/k/a John Stephanel), with vocals provided by Joan Kolova, whose has graced other Consoul Trainin projects.

Released under the modified title Nothing Compares to You, and finding its way to the US on the Redstick label, it’s a competent, inviting reinterpretation of the song. A number of mixes are available that go from chilly and loungey, to pretty “out there.”

Kolova’s vocals don’t attempt to replicate O’Connor’s distinctive sound (a strategy that is perhaps too-often used in dance covers), but rather, gives the song a cool, new sound that is at once familiar, and fresh.

Efthimiou chose remixers for the project that are, to me anyway, unfamiliar (which is a great opportunity to find some new sounds).  My preferred mix is from another Greek producer, Agent Greg, but you can check more of them out on Consoul Trainin’s MySpace page (link at the top of this entry).

I recently created a Playlist on my iPod of some of the songs that mean most to me. While the list is far from comprehensive, it was, nonetheless, an interesting and cathartic process. I have tried to select songs that reminded me of certain periods in my life. They are songs that, when heard, conjure up memories of people, places and feelings. They are not always good memories, but, memories that have helped to shape me into the man that I am today. The Playlist is as follows:

1. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
2. Fleetwood Mac – Oh Well! (1969)
3. David Bowie – Space Oddity (1969)
4. Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven (1971)
5. Soft Cell – Tainted Love (1981)
6. John Lennon – Imagine (1971)
7. Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight (1981)
8. UB40 – One in Ten (1981)
9. Men at Work – Down Under (1982)
10. Billy Bragg – The World Turned Upside Down (1987)
11. Frankie Goes To Holliwood – Two Tribes (1983)
12. The Jam – Eton Rifles (1979)
13. Marillion – Lavender (1985)
14. U2 – With Or Without You (1987)
15. Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)
16. Beautiful South – A Little Time (1990)
17. Blur – Parklife (1994)
18. Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger (1995)
19. Urge Overkill – Girl, You’ll Be  a Woman Soon (1994)
20. Badly Drawn Boy – The Shining  (2000)

Other than nursery rhymes, I think that Bohemian Rhapsody was the first song that I ever learnt end-to-end. I am tone deaf and cannot sing to save my life (people still turn round to look at me on the rare occasions that I have to sing in church) but can still be found belting out Bohemian Rhapsody and banging my head in accompaniment while speeding down the M6 .

It was also one of the first videos I saw. Also, it reminds me of my first days as a student at Oxford. On my first weekend I was taken to the cinema by a certain blonde girl that I had been drooling over to watch the film of the live concert. Unfortunately, while easy on the eye, the blonde girl was shallow and ditzy and my lust was over before the concert ended.

Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” shows how much I have been mentally scarred by my upbringing and my poor self-image. It was the lyrics that resonated with me. I felt that the line “I can’t help about the shape I’m in; I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin.” pretty much summed up how I felt about myself during those difficult teenage years.

Tracks 3) and 4) were amongst the first songs that I recorded manually onto a cassette from my older cousins’ record collection. I was jealous of my cousins. They lived just a few doors up the street but the family was better off than mom and dad and they seemed to have every new toy and gadget going (and they also seemed to break all my new toys), including a record player. Both boys were a couple of years older than me so I was often in awe of them (until they started to wear makeup in the New Romantic era!) and I thought that their choice in music was (note the past tense) cool. As well as an initial taste in music, the cousins also gave me their hand-me-down clothes. This also contributed to my poor self image – see track 2 again.

Soft Cell reminds me of my first nightclub/disco experiences from the age of around 16 on. It is still one of the few tracks that will tempt me to the dance floor without complaint. I have happy memories of snogging and groping strange/mysterious girls in dingy places such as Peppermint Place and Faces in Birmingham. The extended version of the track gave you plenty of time to find a girl……

The assassination of John Lennon in 1980 struck me quite hard, even though I was never really a Beatles fan back then – hence the inclusion of Imagine which topped the chart following his death.

In The Air Tonight (the version without the gorilla) is a piece of music that resonated with me whenever I was romantically depressed. Throughout the 1980s therefore. While I shared Phil Collin’s general malaise, tracks 13 through 16 are girlfriend specific. The good times were good, if brief. But, you broke my heart. You know who you are.

Men at Work reminds me of the fantastic summer before going to university. I was working at Fort Dunlop during the industrial shut down. The work was hard but the camaraderie was great. We had the radio up loud and this was number one at the time.

Tracks 8, 10 and 11 reflect my political awakening which largely coincided with my time as a student at Oxford.

Eton Rifles reminds me of the best friends in the world and student Sweaty Bops in the college beer cellar.

Blur and Oasis mark my transition from London/Nuneaton bachelor to married life in South Manchester.

Urge Overkill reminds me of my wife. When she dances, she dances just like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, but twice as sexy.

The Shining? Well, that’s private. But it always takes me to happy place.

I know that my musical choice will not impress many of you. And, I am certain that many of you will interpret my choice in a myriad strange ways. But, I do not care. These are my memories. this is my life. And, if music be the food of love, play on!

Related Posts:

Food Memories

Happy Days

Childhood Memories

Em 25 de abril temos a infelicidade de ligarmos o rádio e ouvir “Boom Boom Pow”, do Black Eyed Peas. Não tenho NADA contra música só pra se divertir – elas são ótimas pra pedalar – mas essa música… Sem contar que tem Fergie avisando que é ela cantando. Oi? Alguém desconhece os gritinhos dela? E não é que ela está numa música.. do Morrissey, e precisa avisar isso. É o Black Eyed Peas, minha gente!

Esta última década vem sendo cruel com o 25 de abril. Só música ruim. 

Em 25 de abril de 1990, Sinead O’Conner quebrava tudo com Nothing Compares 2 U. A música foi composta por Prince e figura na posição 162 da lista das 500 melhores músicas da história feita pela Rolling Stone. (nota da editora: acho brega esse “2 U”).

Em vez de “quebrava tudo”, acho que fica melhor um “rasgava tudo”, né?

A cantora irlandesa teve, segundo seus relatos, uma infância conturbada. Ela teria sido abusada fisicamente e compôs a música “Fire on Babylon” a partir destes maus-tratos. Os pais travaram uma grande luta pela guarda dos filhos após a separação e, assim que pôde, Sinead passou a morar com o pai. Não durou muito. “Aos 15 foi mandada prum reformatório” (quoting Renato Russo) por vadiagem e roubos em loja (vai ver inspirou Winona Ryder, né? Vai saber…).

Durante a carreira, Sinead declarou ser homossexual, apesar de ter sido casada duas vezes, ter tido quatro filhos e namorado o líder do Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis. A música “I Could Have Lied”, do quinto álbum da banda americana, é sobre o término do namoro entre Sinead e Kiedis. Ela também já disse que é só 25% gay. Polêmica é com ela mesma.

Assim, fez algo que marcou sua carreira pra sempre. Sinead foi a convidada musical do Saturday Night Live de 3 de outubro de 1992. Cantou “War”, de Bob Marley, trocando a palavra “racism” por “child abuse”. Segundo a direção do programa, nos ensaios ela mostrava a foto de uma criança africana. Se não tiver três minutos disponíveis, ou não quer sonhar com a irlandesa gritando “Children, children” (aos 2:38), observe somente a partir do 3:00…

Isso porque foi o João Paulo II, mais conhecido no Brasil como “João de Deus”. Imaginem se fosse o Bento XVI…

A partir desse episódio, a cantora foi alijada de programas de TV. Nunca mais foi convidada pro SNL. Algumas rádios não mais tocaram músicas da irlandesa. Como ela não sabe se é lésbica ou não, ela não sabe se está arrependida. Já deu entrevistas dizendo que sim, e em outras falou um sonoro “Hell, no!”, quando questionada se faria algo diferente.

Em 2007, confessou à Oprah que sofre de transtorno bipolar e que já tentou o suicídio. Problemática a moça, não?

Nádia Lapa, que achava João Paulo II um velhinho simpático e ficou triste quando ele faleceu

This is one of those tracks that just digs deep down into your soul and stays with you forever. The song was written by Prince, truly a legendary musician and composer, but this version by Sinead O’Connor just knocks my socks off. It’s mesmerizing, haunting, and just lingers in the air, like the scent of jasmine on a rainy day.

I hope you get a chance to explore Ms. O’Connor’s music. Her voice is remarkably expressive, ranging from wistful longing to piercing anger. The album from which this track comes, “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” is fantastic, but I particularly like her prior album “The Lion and the Cobra,” with great tracks like “Jerusalem,” “Mandinka,” and “Drink Before the War.”

Ms. O’Connor is a fierce and outspoken person, and she stirred up quite the controversies in her early career, showing courage a lot of artists just don’t have. If I were a young woman looking for role models, she would be on the short list.

Sinead O’Connor

Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2008

glastonbury 2008

hot chip cover.

โคตรชอบเพลงนี้เลยหวะ

ตอนนี้อินมาก 55

Cântăreaţa irlandeză Sinead O’Connor, cunoscută pentru hit-ul „Nothing Compares 2 U”, va concerta pentru prima oară în România, pe 11 iunie, la Arenele Romane din Capitală.[ Biletele la concertul din Bucureşti vor costa 79 de lei, până pe data de 17 aprilie, iar ulterior vor putea fi achiziţionate la preţul de 109 lei, prin intermediul site-ului ticketpoint.ro, la casa Sălii Palatului şi în reţeaua Diverta. În ziua spectacolului, biletele vor costa 129 lei.]

Well, it’s been awhile.  All of the deadlines leading up to midterms seemed to pile up and I haven’t been blogging.  I’ll avoid any other self-loathing excuses and get back to it.

I’ve got a small stockpile of records I’m in the process of going through, but I thought it would be fun to show you what I discovered last night.  “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” made it’s debut on HBO recently, and my roommates and I watched it last night.  While the film was not what I was expecting, its comedic use of music (some original compositions, some forgotten hits) accompanied  many of my favorite scenes.

Anytime “Nothing Compares 2 U” is featured in a film or television show it gets a giggle from me, this film was no exception (especially the Hawaiian cover, by the Coconutz).  But the blue ribbon goes to songs from Jason Segel’s original pieces, in particular “Dracula’s Lament,” from the Dracula Rock Opera. Something Segel had supposedly been thinking about doing previously…

“Do Dak Ta” (aka “Superwoman” and “Because of Him”) from Faye Wong’s (王菲) 1994 HK concert album came up in a discussion on “Faye Wong’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – Longer Version“:

mysticaldodo on 25 Feb 2009 said:

To me it [“Nothing Compares 2 U"] sounds only average. Its kinda like the Bohemian Rhapsody cover and her earlier R&B songs, where she can hit every note but yet she doesn’t sound right (vocally). But she did a better job then Prince himself lol.

Her best R&B sound is still ‘Superwoman-Live’ during her earlier HK concert.

feifan on 25 Feb 2009 said:

Oh, yeah! You got that right, Mysticaldodo! Faye’s “Do Dak Ta” from her 1994 HK concert album rocks the soul! That’s one I never get tired of. One of my all time favorites. I’ll have to add that to my list of “Fayve Songs”!

To sound right, she should probably do R&B in Cantonese with a little bit of English (as in her “Superwoman” cover) instead of all English. Not sure how it would sound in Mandarin.

Deb, on 25 Feb 2009 said:

I’d never listened to her “Shirley Wong” days or her other early songs when I first got to know Faye. So when I heard Do Dak Ta on her concert album, oh my god, I almost fainted. Then it became my all time favourite (especially at kareoke) after that and its still at the top of my list. I rushed out to buy her “Shirley” cds after that!

The first album I owned was 100,000 Whys, I listened to it on repeat SO many times that when I got into my Maths test, I had Summer of Love stuck in my head so much that I almost failed!!

* * * * * * * * * *

MP3 from Faye Wong Live in Concert album released in Jan. 1995.

Sunnyfacestudio uploaded to YouTube, on 22 Feb 2009, a video for the fuller version of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” The MP3 and video below are from Sunnyfacestudio’s video. This post is an update of yesterday’s “Four ‘New’ Faye Wong Songs!,” in which we published only the brief closing chorus of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” This fuller version is absolutely fantastic! Faye Wong (王菲) has the soul and voice for R&B! Man, I’ve got goosebumps all over listening to this song! I can’t stop listening to it and the other three. One can only imagine what it would be like to have full studio versions of these and other covers in a new album!

This has to be the most exciting discovery in the last four years for Faye Wong (王菲) fans! On 18 Feb. 2009, Sunnyfacestudio uploaded to YouTube a virtual gold mine! The video contains snippets of four popular English songs that I’ve never seen or heard Faye perform. I’m quite sure they’ve never been included in any of her official — or unofficial — albums. The video is from a 1994 TV show.

1. Chorus from “Nothing Compares 2 U” from The Family’s 1981 album by the same name. The song was written by Prince and covered by Sinead O’Connor in 1991.

2. “Iko Iko” from Cyndi Lauper’s 1986 album, True Colors.

3. “Purple Rain” from Prince and The Revolution’s 1984 album by the same name.

4. “Love Is Love” from the British pop group Culture Club’s 1985 EP by the same name:

5. All four songs:

done

A long awaited trip to see the mighty mighty Hot Chip at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. I was  expecting great things having seen them last year and thankfully I was disappointed.

The evening started off with a set from Max Tundra who divided the early arrivers with his baffling (in a good way) set of multi-instrument electronica which included a rather wonderful version of ‘What Time Is Love’ and finished with the ‘b-side’ to his latest single, ‘So Long, Farewell’. Additionally extra points are awarded to Max for his outfit and for his somewhat idiosyncratic dancing.

Hot Chip followed and after a somewhat underwhelming start to the set (more to do with the quality of the sound rather than performance) put in some sterling work drawing from all three albums and peaking (of course) with ‘Over & Over’. Highlight for me was the encore which included the super fine ‘Playboy’, Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and ended with the wonderful ‘In The Privacy Of Our Love’.

Princes legendary stint at the o2 london in 2007 is well documented as having been one of the most exciting and sucessful concerts every to be held.

During Princes time in London it was reported that he was seen out in various locations posing for an upcoming book to support the Earth Tour, well its here now to pre order from Amazon.co.uk.

This is a MUST Have item for any Fan…..ORDER YOURS TODAY!! FOLLOW THIS LINK 21 Nights in London book.

PEACE

Prince is heading to Dublin for a one off gig in June.

Details : Dublin at Croke Park on Monday 16th June

Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster.co.uk

Tell your friends….or join our FACEBOOK GROUP

 *********BUY PRINCE DVD’S & CDS**********

Sinéad O’Connor is de tweede popnaam die aan het programma van Night of the Proms wordt toegevoegd. De Ierse zangeres zal zowel in Antwerpen als bij de Promsconcerten in Arnhem en Rotterdam het podium delen met Simple Minds en het duo Igudesman & Joo.

Hey all you Prince fans, I have just seen this great Guitar for sale on Ebay.

RARE CUSTOM SCHECTER Blue PRINCE CLOUD guitar with a case!

Check it out.