"Better off dead"

This whole Ukraine/World War III is really getting me down. I responded the only way I know how:

My 2021 Xmas CD cover

"This is your paradise"

This week I have been busy writing, rehearsing and recording my new hit song:
It was difficult getting the lead guitar right, so I ended up playing and recording it twice, the one on the left is with a phaser and the quieter one on the right is with chorus. The drums are a drum machine (Roland R5), the rest (guitars, bass, lead and harmony vocals) is all me.

Zoom G5n vs Boss ME-80 guitar multi-effects comparison

This will be probably of no interest to my regular readers, but just in case anybody Googles this looking for a comparison, the Zoom is infinitely better than the Boss. I bought the Boss first (about £250) and was not happy with it, so I then bought a Zoom (also about £250) and that thing is a joy.

The Zoom distortions and amp simulators sound awesome, unlike the Boss ones which simply aren't very good at all. The other effects are probably not that much different, all in all a bit better on the Zoom (although there are too many of them).

The Zoom is also easier to use (you don't really need the manual), it has far more user defined patches, you can see what you've saved etc. Sure, I have a couple of niggles with the Zoom (like scrolling through hundreds of options by hand with no 'fast forward' button), nothing is perfect, but there is no question about which one to buy.

Free riders (Georgist song)

Ignore the footage - it's easier to upload a video with music than to just upload an MP3.

Everything written, performed and recorded by *me* (my daughter changed one word in the lyrics).

Lyrics:
Pay your rent or live in a tent, that’s up to you to decide
They take half your money, taking you for a ride
You’ll be happy and you’ll own nothing, but their greedy mouths need stuffing
Free riders, free ride
-----------------------
God made the place in just six days, and then he took a rest
Admired his own handiwork and said “It’s for the best”
Didn’t know that some ugly fuckers, would grab it all and take us for suckers
Free riders, free ride
----------------------
   Or maybe it just formed itself, four billion years ago
   Stardust clumped together, the whole process was very slow
------------------------
Willy was fast and also was a bastard, in a most literal sense
Grabbed the land with an iron hand, and then he grabbed the rent
I said literal, also metaphorical, some war crimes are not historic
Free riders, free ride
-----------------------
Walked the earth like they invented dirt, and then stuck up a fence
They stole half our money, and called it paying rent
Yes, I’m talking about fiscal injustice, it’s complicated... well it just is
Free riders, free ride
-----------------------
   Banks are just as guilty, giving out home loans
   If you miss a payment, they take your house, cut off your phones
-------------------
Our whole system, if you’d care to listen, is totally back to front
They take half your money, at the end of every month
They keep putting up the prices, causing every fiscal crisis
Free riders, free ride
--------------------------
Go to Hell with your BTL, put faces to the names
Trump and Rachmann, Kings and Queens, they’re really all the same
We know how the story ends, they’re your landlords not your friends
Free riders, free ride
Free riders, free ride
Free riders, free ride.

James Newman, I salute you.

Bravely trotting off to the Eurovision Song Contest, knowing full well that you'd probably get nul points.

Why would Bob Dylan misquote his own lyrics?

The penultimate verse of Isis on the LP version (as MetroLyrics confirms) are clearly audible as follows:

She said "Where ya been?", I said "No place special"
She said "You look different", I said "Well, I guess"
She said "You been gone", I said "That's only natural"
She said "You gonna stay?", I said "If you want me to, yes"

I Binged this a couple of days ago because I wanted to pin down some lyrics that are mumbled (what I thought was "the borderline" is actually "dividing line", not that it makes any difference) and was surprised to see that Bob Dylan's official site gives the penultimate verse as:

She said “Where ya been?”, I said “No place special”
She said “You look different”, I said “Well, not quite”
She said “You been gone”, I said “That’s only natural”
She said “You gonna stay?”, I said “Yeah, I jes' might”

This might be some bizarre copyright wrangle, where Bob Dylan doesn't have to hand over a share of the royalties if he publishes his own version of a song which he co-wrote, but FFS.

Friday afternoon gear change

This is textbook stuff. Kygo 'remixed' a 1980s Tina Turner hit, adding little to the original (which itself was irritating enough). There's a pause and a tedious drum break after 2 mins 45 seconds, then it's up a cheeky semi-tone for the rest of the song.

Australian Xmas song

I'm dreaming of a hot Christmas
Just like the ones I'll always know
Where the trees are burning
And barbies turning
A huge pile of embers all a-glow

I'm dreaming of a hot Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be sunny and bright
With sun-block to keep skin nice and white.

Songs on my Xmas playlist by release date

To summarise: the Golden Age of cheesy Xmas songs was from the 1940s to the 1960s, bang them out and hope for the best. The period 2007-2012 is skewed on my list because that's when Bob Dylan and Michael Bublé released their Xmas albums (both of them timeless classics). Apart from that, it's more evenly spread than you'd expect.

The intro to "Bad Liar" by Selena Gomez is the same as the intro to "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads.

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:

Friday afternoon gear change

Forty-two years later, and I've finally noticed this one in "Rhodesia" by Japan (parental advisory - offensive word at 4 mins 24 seconds), up a semi-tone at 4 mins 5 seconds:

Tesco tills are in the key of A#

The three notes I can pick out are A#, C and D. If anybody has more info or background, I'd love to know it!

Xmas gear change

Celine Dion, "I met an angel on Christmas Day", up a cheeky semi-tone half way through the last line of the middle eight at 1 min 52 secs.

This year's Xmas CD cover

This was a collaboration with my daughter, who can share the blame/credit:

Missing beats round

I only noticed this today (forty years later), but the intro to "Rock and roll" by Led Zeppelin is weird. The drum intro is clearly a few bars of 1-2-3-4, but the others start playing the riff just before the third beat (not exactly on the third beat, which I would have understand) and they continue, perfectly in time as if that were the most normal thing in the world:

Short list

Today's short list:

People who have written (or co-written) and performed two completely different songs with the same title.

I'm only aware of two examples:

Mick Jagger - "Think" (side 2, track 7 of Aftermath) and "Think" (track 9 of Wandering Spirit).

More famously, George Michael - "Freedom" with Wham! and "Freedom" (aka "Freedom 90") as a solo artist.

Any more?

Band Aid (1984) vs Band Aid 20

I'm not familiar with Band Aid II (1989) or Band Aid 30 (2014), so can't comment on those. Band Aid (1984 original) and Band Aid 20 (2014 remake) are exactly the same song, except the remake has a little rap section in the middle.

To my mind, the differences are:

1. Most of the artists who appeared on first one had quite long lasting fame, and seem to have been rewarded with longevity. Only two (George Michael and Rick Parfitt) fell in the great celebrity cull of 2016.

Most of those who appeared on the remake only had short lived musical careers. The only one who is still active and well known is Chris Martin out of Coldplay. Bono doesn't count; And & Dec and Cat Deeley are still going, but they are TV presenters, not musicians. What happened to the rest?

Anthony McPartlin (Ant & Dec)
Declan Donnelly (Ant & Dec)
Tim Wheeler (Ash)
Daniel Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield
Busted
Cat Deeley
Dido
Dizzee Rascal
Ms Dynamite
Skye Edwards (Morcheeba)
Estelle
Feeder
Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy)
Justin Hawkins (The Darkness)
Jamelia
Tom Chaplin, Tim Rice-Oxley (Keane)
Beverley Knight
Lemar
Shaznay Lewis (All Saints)
Katie Melua
Róisín Murphy (Moloko)
Snow Patrol
Rachel Stevens
Robbie Williams
Joss Stone
Sugababes
The Thrills
Turin Brakes
Will Young
Russell Mael (Sparks)
Fran Healy (Travis)

2. Musically, the first one is just droning over-layered synthesiser sludge, but the drumming (Phil Collins) is glorious and uplifting all the way through. Musically, the remake is much crisper and well-defined: just piano, acoustic guitar and some nifty guitar solos, but the drumming is really pedestrian and there's a weird bit at the end where they are just bashing some cowbells and hitting sticks together. A pity we can't edit out the rap section (well meant, but jars) and the drumming from the remake and splice Phil Collins' drums in instead.

My cover for this year's Xmas CD

A word doesn't rhyme with itself (2)

Opinions are sharply divided over whether a word rhymes with itself (it's as futile as arguing whether 1 is a prime number or not).

IMHO it does not, it is the height of laziness and defeats the whole object of poetry/rhymes. A really crass example of this is The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. OK, OK, it's taken me forty years to notice.

From azlyrics.com:

Verse one
On a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for nowhere
I met up with a gambler, we were both too tired to sleep

Verse five (or is it a chorus? There's barely a difference):
'Cause every hand's a winner, and every hand's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.

Verse six
And when he finished speakin', he turned back toward the window
Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep