Back from South Africa with a lot of good memories (and some wine too)...It is always sad to see such beautiful and rich countries suffering from so many meaningless conflicts. Anyhow we still need to keep our chins up and hope that the world will be a better place.
As Aaron Copland once said;
"To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping
of time itself, incredible and inconceivable."
Here is our list for this weekend;
Clare Maguire - "Falling Leaves"
Steve Lehman & Sélébéyone - "Laamb"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Red Right Hand"
Björk - "It's Oh So Quiet"
Messer Chups - "Magneto"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
This week the song proposal is coming from a dear friend with whom I share the passion of electronic music and instruments. You may also follow his blog/website from the below address:
"Warm Leatherette" is a song by Daniel Miller's project The Normal, released in 1978. The lyrics of "Warm Leatherette" reference J.G. Ballard's controversial 1973 novel Crash, which had heavily influenced Daniel Miller. Together with his college friend, he had worked on a film script based on the book, but after the project was abandoned, Miller decided to "write a song encapsulating [the script] in 2 and a half minutes". The song was recorded in Miller's apartment using two Revox B-77 tape machines. A series of sawtooth waves were recorded on a $150 Korg 700S synthesizer.
Miller took the record to a few independent music shops, including Rough Trade in London, where it would be played to customers. "Warm Leatherette" was released as the B-side to "T.V.O.D.", the only single by Miller's musical project The Normal, and the very first release on his Mute Records label. However, since it was "Warm Leatherette" that gained more public attention, it was featured as the lead song on subsequent single re-releases. Although Miller did not expect the single to be successful, it sold thirty thousand copies.
The single was an early example of the then-burgeoning industrial music genre, emerging on a wave of numerous electronic pop experiments of the late 1970s in the UK. It has since been described as having "revolutionised electronic music with its punk aesthetic, stark sound and dark subject matter" and has been covered by numerous artists.
And here are the 3 versions I chose for you;
Grace Jones -"Warm Leatherette"
Trent Reznor, Jeordie White, Peter Murphy and Atticus Ross-"Warm Leatherette"
Deathface - "Warm Leatherette"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers...
I would like to thank the blog followers for their interactivity because this series have been one of the most popular posts ever. I even started to get song requests. So thank you all for that. Please keep your requests and comments coming...
Our song for this week is;
"The Man Who Sold the World"
"The Man Who Sold the World" is a song written and performed by David Bowie. It is the title track of his third album, which was released in the US in November 1970 and in the UK in April 1971. This song is about a man who no longer recognizes himself and feels awful about it. For years, Bowie struggled with his identity and expressed himself through his songs, often creating characters to perform them.
The song was reworked by Bowie, featuring atmospheric synths, a new bassline, techno-style drums and a notably darker mood, for performances in concerts from 1995 to 1997, including the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. Bowie later returned to playing the original version in the 2000s.
And here are the 3 versions I chose for you;
Lulu - "The Man Who Sold the World"
Nirvana - "The Man Who Sold the World"
Midge Ure - "The Man Who Sold the World"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers...
This week the post is coming from South Africa. Wonderful fresh spring weather, good food and wine accompanying me in beautiful Cape Town. I am keeping the bla bla part short this week cause I still have to discover if the water goes down the drain in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere :)...
As Roy Ayers once said;
"The true beauty of music is that it connects people.
It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers."
And now here are the 5 songs for this weekend directly from South Africa;
Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) - "African Marketplace"
Jonathan Butler - "Lies"
Miriam Makeba - "Pata Pata"
Hugh Masekela - "Don't Go Lose It Baby"
Zahara - "Mgodi"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
I am happy to see that you are listening to the cover songs I am choosing for you and posting your comments on different platforms. Keep up the good work please. This week I am picking a song that I really like very much and the 3 covers below are quite different than one another, so I guess it will be a fun list.
Our song for today is:
"Heart of Glass"
Blondie members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (who were a couple) wrote the first version of this song in early 1974, shortly after they first met. They didn't have a proper title for the song, and would refer to it as "The Disco Song." Harry explained on the show Words and Music: "Lyrically, it was about a stalker who was pursuing me, and Chris saved me from him."
It wasn't until they recorded this song in 1978 that Stein came up with the title "Heart Of Glass." He didn't know that it was also the title of a 1976 German movie directed by Werner Herzog.
Featured on the band's third studio album, Parallel Lines (1978), it was released as the album's third single in January 1979 and reached number one on the charts in several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
In December 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song number 255 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. It was ranked at number 259 when the list was updated in April 2010. Slant Magazine placed it at number 42 on their list of the greatest dance songs of all time and Pitchfork named it the 18th best song of the 1970s.
In 2018, "Heart of Glass" ranked at number 66 in the UK's official list of biggest selling singles of all-time with sales of 1.32 million copies.
A funny anecdote on the lyrics;
Finding words to rhyme to "glass" that fit in a song can be... a pain in the ass.
In the last chorus, following "Once I had a love and it was a gas," Debbie Harry takes a different tack, singing "Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass." This is a key line in the song, since the singer has now realized that this relationship is more trouble than it's worth, and that her heart of glass might be more durable than she thought.
Unfortunately, American radio was generally ass-free at this time, so to ensure airplay stations were sent an edited version with the offending line replaced with "soon turned out I had a heart of glass."
The beats were made with a Roland drum machine (a CR78) and you may watch the details of the production in the bonus video at the end of the post.
Here are the 3 versions I chose for you;
Nouvelle Vague - "Heart Of Glass"
The Bad Plus - "Heart Of Glass"
Gisele & Bob Sinclar - "Heart of Glass"
One small note to the male followers, it is imperative that you concentrate on the music while making your choices and comments 😅...
And here is the bonus video about the production of the original song.
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers...
