Comments:

Smed - 2007-04-16 09:04:01
Oh, Cracklin' Rosie - GET ON BOARD!
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Claudia - 2007-04-16 09:30:25
I saw Neil IN CONCERT (for free). It was a night to remember - so many large middle-aged women throwing their (large) underwear onto the stage!
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Smed - 2007-04-16 10:06:57
You also should go to YouTube and see the video of Alanis Morrisette doing "My Humps" in a very Tori Amos way yet parodying the video by the Black Eyed Peas.
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Dr. Geek - 2007-04-16 18:56:23
Let's see... a few more notes. This whole mix was conceived as an iTunes playlist gone long. I was originally intending make only one disc, but found that I was about 20-30 minutes over, added more music, and cut it in half. The Ditty Bops are a duo out of LA. I included this track because I thought the guitar/waltz feel picked up nicely where the Jorgenson track left off. POE is the pseudonym for a woman. Much of the disc is about her relationship with her recently deceased father who (evidently) was a rather well known architect. The male spoken word bits are taken from some cassette recordings she had of conversations with him at various ages. I understand how you feel about Fiona Apple. She had a great first CD, when she was, what, 19? Then the followup was good, but not great. Then, there was nothing for over 5 years. The latest disc is better. A new producer helps bring more energy to her music. MC 900ft Jesus is one person: Marc Griffin. One Step Ahead Of The Spider was his last disc, and the only one I have (though I have other tracks on mixes). It is largely spoken word over a variety of electronic, ambient, and jazz-influenced elements. I was recently watching the VH1 Classic "Classic Albums" about the making of Disraeli Gears. That inspired me to get out the Ginger Baker Trio. Both discs are well worth getting. B.B.'s Blues is Branford Marsalis' group with B.B. King. I hope it doesn't spoil anything to say that this was the original end of the playlist I came up with, and it was supposed to loop back to the opening track. The John Mayer was another transitional element; I wanted the bluesy guitar of the Hendrix cover to bridge to a more songwriter-based mode to close the disc. Neil Diamond (aka The Jewish Elvis) can be a power for good or great evil. It's been almost 25 years since "Turn On Your Heart Light", and that isn't long enough in my opinion either. But if you go back farther, you find that Neil started out as a really solid Brill Building/Tin Pan Alley songwriter. Fortunately, Rick Rubin decided to go looking for the former instead of the latter when he helped shape Neil's last disc "12 Songs". It's all intimate settings -- Neil singing and playing guitar plus a couple other instruments. Plus, he made Neil woodshed the songs until they were really good, and, as Amazon said, harness "what sounds like decades' worth of untapped, superior songcraft". I had to include some Rufus Wainwright here somewhere... because he's another one who just seems to write so well. The Tori Amos was included because it is both Tori and not-Tori -- it was recorded at the very beginning of her career and displays much of her talent, but at the same time does not fall prey to some of the excesses of attitude that show up in her other work.
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