AtiBlog

Monday, January 13, 2020

RIP Neil Peart

He was truly one of the greatest drummers of all time. Everyone knows what a master of percussion he was, but at the same time he was the songwriting brain of Rush...

Neil Peart passed away on January 7th 2020 and he will be always be remembered...

Friday, January 10, 2020

Which one is your favorite? - XVIII -

Here comes a song from my younger days. I clearly remember the day I bought the album in LP format maybe a year later than it was released (unfortunately that was the case during those years, well maybe it was better I don't know...).
There were songs on that album far more popular than this song but it was always my favorite; even probably in my top 3 songs list of the band.

Here is the song for this week;

"Close To Me"

It is a song by the English band "The Cure" which was released in 1985 as the second and final single from their sixth album, The Head on the Door.

Three versions of "Close to Me" were released in 1985: the original album version, the 7" single mix version and the 12" extended mix version. The album version does not feature the brass section part present on all of the other versions, which was adapted from a traditional New Orleans funeral march melody and played by horn section Rent Party for the single mix.

The 7" version also includes a long creaking sound of a door closing at the beginning: this originated from the music video shot for the song by director Tim Pope, which features the band trapped in a wardrobe falling off a cliff into the English Channel. The idea for the video came from a dream Robert Smith had where he was locked in a linen closet that fell off a cliff and into the ocean.

The song peaked at number 4 in Ireland, and also reached number 7 in Australia and number 24 in the UK Singles Chart.

And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;

Kaki King - "Close To Me"

The Separate & Mark Lanegan - "Close To Me"

The Orobians - "Close To Me"

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..

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Five Songs for the Weekend - LVIII -

Well it's just the beginning of the year but we are receiving terrible news from all over the world. Warmongering in some parts, massive fires in Australia and ongoing environmental crisis almost all over the world...I believe our poor planet is heading to a situation where "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" will be inevitable if proper measures are not taken very soon!

In the meantime we try to console ourselves with the magic of music.

As George Eliot once said;

"Life seems to go without effort when we are filled with music."

And here is the list for this weekend;

Thorbjørn Risager & the Black Tornado - "Drowning"

Devendra Banhart - "Carmensita"

Monophonics - "Foolish Love"

Absolute Ensemble ft. Joe Zawinul - "Sultan"

Mdou Moctar - "Kamane Tarhanin"

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.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Which one is your favorite? - XVII -

How about we start the year with a song from the 30s? This is a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934. It may be the first instance of the familiar "50s progression" in a popular song and has become a standard ballad. The song was a hit twice in 1949 with successful recordings in the U.S. by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.

Here is the song for this week;

"Blue Moon"

In 1961, "Blue Moon" became an international number-one hit for the doo-wop group The Marcels, on the Billboard 100 chart and in the UK Singles chart. Over the years, "Blue Moon" has been covered by various artists. Richard Rodgers hated the Marcels' doo-wop arrangement of this song so much that he took out advertisements in the music papers urging people not to buy it.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began writing this for the 1933 movie musical Hollywood Party, but it was cut from the film. The following year, it was used in Manhattan Melodrama - starring Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy - where it was performed by Shirley Ross in a nightclub scene. The song was originally called "The Bad in Every Man," befitting the story of Gable's kind-hearted criminal, but was rejected by MGM until it was re-worked as "Blue Moon."

Mel Tormé sang this in the 1948 movie Words And Music, which was loosely based on the story of Rodgers and Hart's partnership. It was also used in the movies Malaya (1949); East Side, West Side (1950); and With A Song In My Heart (1952) before Elvis Presley recorded it for Sun Records in 1954.

It is also the anthem of English Football League club Crewe Alexandra and English Premier League football club Manchester City, who have both adapted the song slightly.

And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;

The Marcels - "Blue Moon"

Rod Stewart - "Blue Moon"

Cowboy Junkies - "Blue Moon Revisited"

And here is another one out of competition;

Beady Eye - "Blue Moon"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Five Songs for the Weekend - LVII -

Here comes the first post of the year. We spent our New Year in a beautiful village in the mountains with great friends, tasty food and wine hoping 2020 will be a good year filled with music and art...

As Truman Fisher once said;

"The pause is as important as the note."

Here are the 5 songs for this weekend;