I dug this track out from an old CD last night and thought I may add it to my blog. It is by a Canadian college band called the "Pursuit of Happiness" (No not the asinine Will Smith movie. Did anyone else have a nap during that film?)
What I didn't realise is that "The Pursuit of Happiness" released this song in 1986 and then rereleased it along with a new music video in 1990. Both releases of "I'm an adult now" charted well in Canada and made it to #39 in Australia. It is the latter version which I am more familiar with.
One of the reasons I like this song is because of the tongue in cheek lyrics. Take a look they are very funny.
Well, I don't hate my parents I don't get drunk just to spite them I've got my own reasons to drink now Think I'll call my dad up and invite him I can sleep in till noon anytime I want Though there's not many days that I do Gotta get up and take on that world When you're an adult it's no cliché it's the truth
(Chorus) 'Cause I'm an adult now I'm an adult now I've got the problems of an adult On my head and on my shoulders I'm an adult now
I can't even look at young girls anymore People will think I'm some kind of pervert Adult sex is either boring or dirty Young people they can get away with murder I don't write songs about girls anymore I have to write songs about women No more boy meets girl boy loses girl More like man tries to figure out what the hell went wrong
I can't take any more illicit drugs I can't afford any artificial joy I'd sure look like a fool dead in a ditch somewhere With a mind full of chemicals Like some cheese-eating high school boy
Sometimes my head hurts and sometimes my stomach hurts And I guess it won't be long Till I'm sitting in a room with a bunch of people whose necks and backs are aching Whose sight and hearing's failing Who just can't seem to get it up
Speaking of hearing, I can't take too much loud music I mean I like to play it, but I sure don't like the racket Noise, but I can't hear anything Just guitars screaming, screaming, screaming Some guy screaming in a leather jacket Wooah!
I have linked their version that was released in 1990. The video and track is a little bit slicker.
This is a track that I have loved for a long time. It has such a cool little groove going on. I thought I would take a peek into who is "White Town" and the background of the song "Your Woman".
Firstly White Town is one guy Jyoti Mishra. Here is a pic of Jyoti
This is not what I imagined him to look like. From the stuff that I have read about Jyoti he seems like a funny self deprecating chap. Here are some things that he has been quoted as saying.
After being asked if he would tour: "White Town is just me, Jyoti. I *do* want to play live but I currently have no live incarnation. Plus… how do I do it? Watching a fat bloke prod a synth and peer at a laptop isn’t exactly high drama, is it?"
About being a one hit wonder: "Better than being a no-hit wonder!" (Indeed Jyoti..indeed.)
Lastly this is what Jyoti wrote after being asked if "Your Woman" would make it to iTunes "Heh! Good question - first iTunes take their cut and then EMI... and then I have to wait for the royalties to filter through. But I'll probably get enough for a packet of biscuits in the end."
Just as a note White Town have toured since Jyoti wrote that comment.
I thought I would address the lyrics of "Your Woman" because it is a guy singing "I will never be your woman".
Jyoti is a happily married straight man so he gives some thoughts:
"Being a straight guy in love with a lesbian. Being a gay guy in love with a straight man (not tried this one yet). Being a straight girl in love with a lying, two-timing, fake-ass Marxist. The hypocrisy that results when love and lust get mixed up with highbrow ideals"
I knew that there was some sampling in "Your Woman" but until I did a little research recently I had no idea about the history of the track. It begins with a song called "My Woman" by Bing Crosby. There was a cover of the Bing Crosby song performed by Lew Stone and the Monseigneaur band in 1932.
Jyoti heard this song after watching a TV show called "Pennies from Heaven". He then took the trumpet riff and sampled it for "Your Woman".
So no, Jyoti wasn't ripping off the "Imperial March" from Star Wars. It's funny though that so many people mention Star Wars when referring to the track "Your Woman". Even on Jyoti's website he gets asked about Star Wars. So I will link the Imperial March and you can make up your own mind.
While I am on the subject, some smarty pants has mixed in the "Imperial March" into "Your Woman" on Youtube. I'm not going to embed it but if you want to take a listen you can go here
So here are the tracks in order:
"Your Woman" by Whitetown "My Woman" by Lew Stone and the Monseigneaur band and "The Imperial March" by John Williams
The song today is "Heartbeats" written by the Knife.
This song really came to prominence when the version by Jose Gonzalez was used by Sony in their Bravia TV commercials. As the Knife wrote the song they got shit-buckets of money from Sony which they used to start a record label.
Which version do you prefer? The original or the Jose Gonzalez cover? I'm an electro gal so of course I prefer the Knife.
Today's track brings back a lot of memories for me.
Mostly I go back to Year 9 Maths class where we had assigned seating. My seat was next to this boy who used to drum out Metallica and Slayer songs on his desk using his pencils. Needless to say it drove me near balmy.
However one thing I have to thank this boy for was an introduction to Metallica's "One". When I first saw the video clip I think I was sombre for a good hour after. If you watch it I think you will understand what I am talking about. The concept behind the song "One" was inspired by a book called "Johnny got his gun". The book is about a man who goes off to war (WWI) and gets hit by German artillery. He loses his limbs, sight, hearing and smell, leaving him a prisoner in his body (pretty uplifting story so far huh?) The video clip for "One" was Metallica's first and it used the film adaptation of "Johnny got his gun" in the storyline. If you want to take a look at the details for the movie which has now received cult status due to "One" go to IMDB.
"Johnny got his gun" has been remade recently. It stars that dude from the OC. You can take a look here
For those out there who have never heard of them, The Beloved are a British electronic music group.
I really love the story of how the band was created.
From Wikipedia: In 1983, Jon Marsh placed an advertisement in the music press, which read as follows:
"I am Jon Marsh, founder member of the Beloved. Should you too wish to do something gorgeous, meet me in exactly three year's time at exactly 11am in Diana's Diner, or site thereof, Covent Garden, London, WC2."
The first track from the Beloved today is "Hello" (no NOT a cover of the Lionel Ritchie song...shudder) Any song that lists Willy Wonker and Desmond Tutu is pretty cool in my opinion. BTW I always thought that the line "little neepsie, chris and do" was actually "Little Nietzsche, Christendom". However these lyrics are from the Beloved website. Take a look:
"so welcome to the world, yeah... all you late-comers, just step onboard i'm happy, glad you came so welcome home again!
sometimes i feel we must be going mad
hello peter, hello paul saints and sinners, welcome all tommy cannon and bobby ball hello, hello, hello, hello
consider, if you will this great big question, unanswered still oh, can you spot the difference that lies between the colour blue and the colour green?
sometimes i feel we must be going mad
little richard, little nell willy wonka and william tell salman rushdie and kym mazelle hello, hello, hello, hello...
so welcome to the team oh, have you worked it out yet? yeah - the riddle, i mean what's the answer? it's plain to see - blue is blue and it always will be
sometimes i feel that the whole world's going mad
mork and mindy, brian hayes barry humphries and paris grey little neepsie, chris and do hello, hello, hello, hello...
billy corkhill, vince hilaire freddie flintstone, fred astaire desmond tutu, steve and claire hello, hello, hello, hello...
charlie parker, charlie brown leslie crowther, come on down mary wilson, di and flo hello, hello, hello, hello...
sir bufton tufton, jean paul sartre zippy, bungle, jeffrey archer andre previn and the lso hello, hello, hello, hello..."
The second Beloved track today is "Time after time" (no not the Cyndi Lauper song :) What a beautiful song. Enjoy.
Before I present the track for today I have a number of things I want to discuss first.
1. I went on to You tube and typed in Divinyls. The overwhelming response was "I touch myself"..ugh. Now "I touch myself is an alright song. I mean it was co written by the guys that wrote "Like a Virgin" (Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg) so it was most likely going to be a hit BUT it is not a Divinyls song. The Divinyls cut their teeth in the Oz rock pub scene. They are gutsy and ballsy. I take my hat off to them because they toured their asses off. It just seems a shame to me that they will be mostly remembered for "I touch myself".
2. I have the "What a life" album on LP (record). I have played this sucker to death. This album is one of my favourites and when I try to play it now it sounds more like a test pattern than anything else. I wasn't too disheartened by this because I assumed that I would just update and buy the CD of the album..right? Wrong. The original LP pressing of this album (Australian) is NOT available on CD at all. They have the crumby US version which sucks donkey balls because it is missing some of my most favourite songs like "Talk like rain", "Old Radios"and the title track "What a life". I don't know why the record company thought "Casual Encounter" was a better track. Go figure. Anyway this is a public plea. If anyone has a CD/MP3 copy of the original "What a life" please contact me. I will gladly sell my first born for it (or at least my goldfish).
3. Last year I borrowed Chrissie Amphlett's auto biography from the library. She has had one interesting life including time spent in a Spanish prison, constant fighting with Mark McEntee, almost being eviscerated by Aerosmith fans (while being support act),alcoholism, touring and now having MS.
4. I saw Chrissy Amphlett play the role of Judy Garland on stage for the "Boy from Oz". She was amazing. I never would have thought she could have pulled that off but she did it so well.
5. When I went to see the Divinyls play live once there was a guy that Chrissy pulled up on stage. This guy had a HUGE tattoo of Chrissy on his chest. Now THAT my dear readers is a devoted fan.
Today’s clip is off the "What a life" album. To me this is classic Divinyls.
Do you remember Betty Boo?She was "Doin the do" at one stage with a couple of hit tracks in the 90's. She famously came to Australia to do some "live gigs" and was busted lip syncing on stage after she dropped her mike. Apparently the crowd didn't take it too well and booed Betty off stage (Get it booed Betty? Betty Boo? Ah..forget it).
Anyway I thought Betty would have faded into obscurity, put on 20 pounds and developed a poker machine addiction..but no..she released a track in 2007 and it wasn't half bad.So today I am taking a look back at Betty (Alison Clarkson) then and now. To be honest she hasn't changed much at all.Here is "Where are you baby"
Grace Jones is currently in Australia doing some gigs.I didn't realise that she is 60 years old! Damn I want to age as well as that!
With Grace being in town it reminded me of my favourite Grace Jones track. No it's not "Slave to the Rhythm" or "Pull up to the Bumper".It is "Strange I've seen that face before (Libertango)".
This song features quite heavily in the film "Frantic" starring Harrison Ford, although it never made it to the official soundtrack.
There is a part in the song where Grace speaks in French. I never knew what she was saying until recently:"What are you searching for? To meet death? Who do you think you are? You hate life, you too...)"
Useless piece of trivia part 1, 2 & 3:
1. Did you know that the song "Slave to the Rhythm" was written for Frankie Goes to Hollywood as a follow up track to "Relax"?
2. Grace at one stage was a muse to Andy Warhol who photographed her extensively.
3. Grace appeared in the god awful Eddie Murphy movie "Boomerang". She played an eccentric supermodel who wanted to call her newly launched perfume "After birth" or "Steel Vagina". Grace was a crack up and the best thing in this stinker.
In 1991 there was a documentary and accompanying album called "Two Rooms".
The documentary was about Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin. It was called "Two Rooms" because Elton and Bernie have never been in the same room to write a song.
Bernie writes the poetry and gives it to Elton. Elton then works on a melody and often cuts and changes Bernie's lyrics to make it fit. This is why there are some Elton John songs which don't entirely make sense like "Daniel". Elton cut out an entire section of "Daniel" which explained that he was a Vietnam vet returning back to his home town. He was going to be made into a town hero and didn't want to be a hero.
In Two Rooms Bernie brings up the type of lyrics that Elton came up with himself prior to their collaboration.
An example is a song called "The Witches House"
"I go to the witches house, I go whenever I can Me and Molly Dickinson In my delivery van.."
Elton obviously needed lyrical help.
This brings me to today's selection and the story behind it. Elton was obviously going through a bit of confusion because he was going to get married and was having second thoughts about tying the knot. He decides it is all too much for him so he tries to kill himself with the gas oven in the kitchen.
Bernie describes the rest of the story: "I walk in and see Elton and what I should have thought was oh my God he has tried to kill himself. But he was laying on the kitchen floor with a little satin pillow, the gas oven on and all the windows are open."
Elton was convinced not to go ahead with the marriage (well duh he's gay..if only someone told Renata) and focus on his musical career.
Bernie writes the lyrics to "Someone saved my life tonight" to commemorate this event:
"And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear You almost had your hooks in me didn't you dear You nearly had me roped and tied Altar-bound, hypnotised Sweet freedom whispered in my ear You're a butterfly And butterflies are free to fly Fly away, high away, bye bye"
I have chosen this version sung live in concert near the time it was released because Elton (after his vocal surgery) can't hit the high notes any more. He also plays it in a different key to accommodate it.
It is a truly amazing song which I love.
Just remember people butterflies are free to fly....
When I talk to people who are fans of Kylie (Minogue) I always have to test how big of a fan they are because I am a smart arse :)
I ask if they know the song German Bold Italic.
To be honest most don't have a clue what I am talking about (I'm used to it by now. The voices in my head know what I am talking about though).
In case you are in this boat let me break it down for you.
There was a track in the 90's called "Groove is in the heart" by the band Deee lite. Towa Tei who was one of the DJ's behind the band Deee lite collaborated with Kylie on this track. That is why you can hear samples from "Groove is in the heart" during the song.
This was during a period of Kylie's career where she left Mike Waterman (of Stock, Aitken, Waterman fame), changed record labels (to DeConstruction), and decided that she wanted to be an alternative artist (or something like that).The public didn't take to it. Neither did her new record company who dumped her after poor sales.
The film clip was directed by Kylie's boyfriend at the time Stephane Sednaoui. Stephane has directed a number of music video's for various artists such as Jamiroquai, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Björk, and Depeche Mode to name just a few.
This clip looks a little low budget and it follows Kylie dressed as a Geisha through the streets of New York city. (I read "Memoirs of a Geisha" and I don't recall the Geisha's performing in a hot tub wearing a bikini...hmmm)
I can't say I am a huge fan of this track but any song that is written about a font has my mark. Fonts are the shizz y'all! If only Google Blogger could have decent fonts!!
Here is Kylie in her Geisha glory for German Bold Italic.
As a point of reference here is "Groove is in the heart"
Now for a Kylie track during this period that I actually like. Kylie wrote this song about meeting Stephane Sednaoui. It is off the Impossible Princess album.
When I was in high school I had a bit of a crush on Christian Slater. I didn't care that he was a Jack Nicholson wanna be. I just thought he was hot.
Recently I revisted the movie "Pump up the Volume" because I thought it would be a little nostalgic journey.
I can honestly say that it hasn't really stood the test of time. The acting is poor, the teen angst storyline has been done a zillion times and it is pretty implausible.
For those of you who have never seen the film it is about a teenager who moves to Arizona and has zero friends. He has a short wave radio set which he uses to become his night time alter ego -pirate radio DJ Happy Harry Hard On.
The one thing that has stood the test of time is the soundtrack.
Some tracks and artists from the film include:
"Kick Out The Jams" Performed by Bad Brains with Henry Rollins
"Wave of Mutilation (U.K. Surf)" Performed by The Pixies
"Titanium Expose" Performed by Sonic Youth
"Everybody Knows" Performed by Leonard Cohen Also performed by Concrete Blonde
"Scenario" Performed by The Beastie Boys(I give this movie props for including the Beastie Boys track "Scenario" as it was an unreleased track until it appeared in 1998 on a bootleg called "Original III". I would feature this track if I could find a decent recording of it. If anyone is out there who has this track drop me a line.)
"Freedom of Speech" Performed by Above The Law
"Heretic" Performed by Soundgarden
"Tale O' The Twister" Performed by Chagall Guevara
"Dad, I'm in Jail" Performed by Was Not Was
I have a number of favourites from the soundtrack.
One is Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" which is currently being used in Australia in a cancer council commercial. It's really enjoyable listening to Leonard while images of clogged arteries being squeezed are flashed on your TV :( (Just as an aside am I the only person who hates these ads?).
So here is the track minus the clogged arteries
"Freedom of Speech" from Above the Law is another track I love.
"Now what's really known as a radio cut? When you can's say (shit) and you can't say (fuck) I really think you wanna hear it But the radio stations, you see, they still gonna fear it Yo, I thought this country was based upon freedom of speech Freedom of press, freedom of your own religion To make your own decision, now that's baloney Cause if I gotta play by your rules, I'm bein phoney Yo, I got to cater to this person or that person I got to rhyme for the white or the black person? Why can't it all be equal?Music is a universal language for all people."
The last track I want to mention is "Wave of Mutilation" by the Pixies. I recently saw Frank Black (lead singer of the Pixies) boasting live on stage that he was one of the first people to mention "El Nino" in a song. Well Frank, Flock of Seagulls mentioned the Aurora Borealis in one of their tracks and they didn't bang on about it :)
Once upon a time there was a guy in Germany called Armin Meiwes. Armin decided to put an advert on the internet for someone to eat (mmmm...nice). Some very well adjusted man answered the ad and agreed for Armin to eat him (stay with me on this one..)
Armin drugs the man and plies him with alcohol while taking off selections of his body to eat....they both have a bit of a nosh of the mans nether regions (ewwwwwww).
The man didn't live (funny that) but Armin didn't require any additional protein in his diet for weeks.
I am not making this story up. It really did happen and it is the subject of Rammstein's song "Mein Teil".
Rammstein are extremely good at taking the piss so when they perform it on stage the keyboard player Flake is brought out in a big copper pot with steam rising from it. Till Linderman the lead singer has a mike which when you flip it around is a knife and he is dressed in a butchers apron and hat.
As the song is sung in German here are some snippets of the lyrics translated into English:
"Today I will meet a gentleman He likes me so much he could eat me upsoft things and even hard ones are on the menu... It's just so well seasoned and so nicely flambéed and so lovingly served on porcelain and with it, a good wine and gentle candlelight Yet, I'll take my timeYou've got to have some culture Because you are what you eat and you know what it is..." If you are a sick bastard like me who would like to read the full account of Armin Meiwes you can read about it here I may personally go vegetarian for a for a few weeks :) Here are Rammstein on stage doing their thing for "Mein Teil" (My Part).
Did you know that before Faith No More came to prominence in 1990 that they had a different leader singer for many years?
Even Courtney Love was a singer for Faith No More at one stage but she was fired after only 4 performances (wise move).
Chuck Mosely was the lead singer for the album's "We care a lot" and "Introduce Yourself".
The height of Faith No More's sucess came with the single "Epic" in 1990 off "The Real Thing" album.
By this stage FNM had a different lead singer - Mike Patton.
The song I am taking a look at today is "We care a lot".
The song was written at the height of the Live Aid era so the lyrics are a bit tongue in cheek which I love.
"About disasters, fires, floods and killer bees About the NASA shuttle falling in the sea About starvation and the food that Live Aid bought About disease, baby Rock, Hudson, rock, yeah!"
Any song that mentions Rock Hudson and AIDS is pretty cool in my book (if not completely tasteless hehe).
The first clip is of Chuck Mosely at the helm singing "We care a lot". The second clip is a live version of the same track (sung by Mike Patton) followed by "Epic" at Rock in Rio. Which version do you like better?
For all those people who think that Mike Patton has faded into obscurity since the break up of FNM, think again.
He has a project called "Peeping Tom" which is deemed as an "experimental band" because he uses a lot of beat boxing instead of instruments.
Today's double shot retro rewind is inspired by Sydney's weather. The skies are just aching to burst. When I was driving in to work today the song 'Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush randomly played on my mp3 and I thought it was quite fitting.
Cloudbusting was released in October 1985.
This is what Wikipedia had to say about the track: "The song is a look at a special relationship between a boy and his Father. It describes psychologist Wilhelm Reich's arrest and imprisonment through the eyes of his son, Peter, who wrote his father's story in "A book of dreams", published in 1973, on which the song is based. Wilhelm Reich is the inventor of the cloud buster, which looks very much like the machine that is pictured on the cover of the single." You can watch the full video clip here
Did you notice the cameo by Donald Sutherland and Kate Bush playing his son? I thought that was kinda cool.
The second clip on this double shot rewind day is "Something Good" by Utah Saints (no I haven't heard of them since either). They sample Cloudbusting in this track...mashing it up.
Take a look at it here and listen for Kate to make her appearance.
The first time I saw Xanadu I was 6 years old watching it as a double feature (remember those?) with Grease. Of course everyone loved Grease and hated Xanadu.
Xanadu of course had a legend like Gene Kelly as one of it's stars. I have read that Gene Kelly took the role mainly because the filming location was close to where he lived. It would also be Gene's last movie and it was unfortunately a turkey.
Apparently the movie was in trouble during the entire filming process including regular rewrites to the script.
With all of this I guess you are wondering why I am bothering to mention Xanadu at all. Well it has a fab soundtrack. The film may have been a flop but the soundtrack did amazingly well with top 5 status in both the U.S and U.K.
Side 2 of the Xanadu soundtrack was written by Jeff Lynne and performed by ELO.
The track list is:
Side 1 Olivia Newton-John 1. "Magic" 2. "Suddenly" 3. "Dancin'" 4. "Suspended in Time" 5. "Whenever You're Away From Me" Side 2 Electric Light Orchestra 1. "I'm Alive" 2. "The Fall" 3. "Don't Walk Away" 4. "All Over the World" 5. "Xanadu" (sung by Olivia Newton-John)
Most people who know me also know that i have a very soft spot for Xanadu even with the poor acting, plot and script.
The softest spot I have is for the Gene Kelly/Olivia Newtown John duet "Whenever you're away from me".
The lead singer of Korn Jonathan Davis listens to this song before he goes on stage. You don't believe me? Read about it here To remind you of how wonderful this track is take a look at it
Hi dear readers, My name is Pop Trinkets and I am from lovely Sydney, Australia.
Many moons ago I had my own website called the Vault where I gave a run down on movies, music and Pop Culture in general. As an avid lover of pop culture I think there is a lot more to it than visiting Perez Hilton on a daily basis.
Hence I have created Pop Trinkets...
Trinkets of information regarding popular culture - mostly pop music. Thanks for taking the time to stop by my page.
