{"id":4836,"date":"2009-02-23T13:25:28","date_gmt":"2009-02-23T18:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=4836"},"modified":"2009-02-23T13:25:28","modified_gmt":"2009-02-23T18:25:28","slug":"tastemakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=4836","title":{"rendered":"Tastemakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let's try something new, eh?<\/p>\n

Here's an assignment:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Choose three <\/em>songs you think everyone should know. These should probably be songs that most people here don't already know (you be the judge). They don't have <\/em>to be your favorites, and they don't have <\/em>to be the Best Songs Ever. They just need to be songs you think more people should know.\n
  2. Find YouTube vids or MySpace links or something for the songs - so that other people can hear them too! (important!)\n
  3. In as many or as few words as you want, tell us why you think we should know these songs.\n<\/ol>\n

    I'll kick it off with my three. <\/p>\n

    Warning: I've had a lot of caffeine, and I'm home sick, so I might ramble a bit... <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Elliot Smith - Waltz #2
      \n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>
      \nThe tune is the most persistent earworm I've ever encountered. It can stick in my head for, literally, weeks while I repeat all those wonderful lines over and over. I think it's his best song, and I do think it's one of the Best Songs Ever, so I'm always amazed to learn that people don't know any Elliot Smith, let alone this perfect little gem. <\/p>\n

      First verse:<\/p>\n

      \nFirst the mic then a half cigarette
      \nSinging \"Cathy's Clown\"
      \nThat's the man she's married to now
      \nThat's the girl that he takes around town
      \nShe appears composed, so she is, I suppose
      \nWho can really tell
      \nShe shows no emotion at all
      \nStares into space like a dead china doll<\/p>\n

      I'm never gonna know you now
      \nbut I'm gonna love you anyhow<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      The Everly Brothers' \"Cathy's Clown\" is about a man whose girl is so untrue that people are talking about him, calling him \"Cathy's Clown\"; and he's sick of it. And here's Elliot Smith singing about singing that song in reference to what could be an old flame of his own (though it could be fictional, I don't know his biography). Indeed, he may even be<\/em> a Cathy's Clown, singing about singing \"Cathy's Clown\". I love recursion.<\/p>\n

      Second verse:<\/p>\n

      Now she's done and they're calling someone
      \nSuch a familiar name
      \nI'm so glad that my memory's remote
      \n'cause I'm doing just fine hour to hour, note to note
      \nHere it is the revenge to the tune
      \nYou're no good
      \nYou're no good, you're no good, you're no good
      \nCan't you tell that it's well understood<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \"The revenge to the tune...\". So sweet. And, the way he sings those \"you're no good\"s, I can't help but hear a reference to another classic song: \"You're no good\"<\/a> (obviously). <\/p>\n

      The bridge:<\/p>\n

      I'm here today and expected to stay
      \nOn and on and on
      \nI'm tired, I'm tired<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Now that my ears are tuned to references to other songs, that \"on and on\" feels to me like a shout out to another song about a man who's been jilted: Stephen Bishop's \"On and On\":<\/p>\n