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Denmark Street

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Everything posted by Denmark Street

  1. I think you do Costello a huge injustice. The Ray Charles comment is something he has been questioned over about a thousand times, and he has never once attempted to avoid the issue, or play it down. He has gone on record again and again as stating that he deeply regrets it, and that it was said in a stupid drunken rage purely to anger Bramlett, who he was arguing with, in an effort to provoke him. There is simply no way that Costello is a racist, everything he has said and done since proves that, and to dismiss him because of a flippant comment made nearly 25 years ago is just daft. BTW, I love to know where that guy got "Oliver Churchill" from. Was he related to Rupert Eisenhower by any chance? ::
  2. Yellow Submarine. Dont think there's a Z So..what do I win? ::
  3. I love In The Wee Small Hours...beautiful music to feel sad to. A great album for getting drunk on your own !! And of course Songs for Swining Lovers is its opposite, an album full of wonderful upbeat songs. Both are classic Sinatra.
  4. Costellogirl,whats your favourite EC album ? For me, its a tough choice between Imperial Bedroom and Brutal Youth, and I also love the one he did with Bert Bacharach! He's one of my favourite artists of all time, and I've seen him live more than anyone else, twenty two times since 1978!
  5. Think it has to be the Capitol years.. for me, he was at his peak then.
  6. Weellll...kind of. The song is actually originally from a 1937 musical called 'Babes in Arms' and was written by the famous duo Rodgers and Hart. Back in the 30s, the word tramp sort of meant what it means today, but without the added obvious sexual inuendo. It implied that the girl thought she was better than she actually was, and liked to put on a show just to impress people. Thats what the song is about..but I'd guess that Frank knew exactly what it also meant!!
  7. Time again to resurrect my one good joke: How do you turn a duck into a singer?? Stick it in a microwave until it's Bill Withers. (well hey, I think its funny, ok?)
  8. OOPS! Sorry... my mistake! I got the wrong song. Its Vera Lynn's other big war time hit that Pink Floyd refer to. Its called "We'll meet again".. We'll meet again Don't know where, don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day It was especially popular with people who had loved ones away in the army.
  9. Yes, its the same woman. Vera Lynn was at her most popular in Britain during the1940s, and became something of a pin-up girl for British troops during World War 2. Her most famous song was "The White Cliffs of Dover", which was a huge war-time success for her. Its the lyrics of this song that Pink Floyd refer to.. They'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover Tomorrow, just you wait and see They'll be peace and laughter, and love ever after Tomorrow, when the world is free.
  10. Again, no particular order..and not just bands but solo artists too. Aretha Franklin The Rolling Stones The Beatles Elvis Presley Little Richard The Clash Smokey Robinson & The Miracles Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band The Jam The Kinks
  11. Dazed and Confused Kashmir When the levee breaks
  12. Some more absolutely genuine band names: ( Cool or just dumb? You decide.) The Strawberry Alarm Clock Half Man, Half Biscuit The Chocolate Watch Band Oingo Boingo Carter the Unstopable Sex Machine The Hamsters The Urrghhh Splodgenessabounds The Homosexuals The Wedding Present Jackie O' Muthaf**** Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias Scum of the Earth Groovey Joe Poovey
  13. Great, great song. I've always taken it to be a put down addressed to someone who used to move in powerful or influential cicles, but now finds themselves out of favour. I think its one of only a few Dylan songs with a literal interpretation, what you hear is what he means and theres no secret or hidden references. Not sure if he's talking to a specific person, but I've always loved this song . Its Dylan at his most spiteful and venemous, and you can just hear it in his voice "How does it Feeeeel?" .
  14. It's a reference to Oliver Cromwell, leader of of the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War against the Royalist army of Charles 1. Amongst other things, he established what was called The New Model Army. which was the first professional, properly trained and drilled fighting force England had . Costello's song is a general anti-military statement, it's main target is the fact that the only real option that the unemployed have is to join the army (British unemployment figures were at an all-time high when he wrote the song in the early 80s). It doesn''t have anything particular to do with Cromwell, other than the title.
  15. It's the theme from the 1986 British movie, "Local Hero", directed by Bill Forsyth and featuring no less an actor than Burt Lancaster in a small role. The movie is about a giant oil company who send a man to Scotland, in order to secretly buy up an entire coastal town where they want to build a refinery. But the towns people find out why he's come, and set about convincing him to work against his boss to stop the plan. It's a very enjoyable film; funny and moving at the same time, and should be easy enough to find on video or DVD . The music is not strictly by Dire Straits, it was actually released as a Mark Knopfler solo album. But it features all his band mates amongst a bunch of session musicians, so its a Dire Straits record in all but name. Musically, it just sounds like a collection of Dire Straits instrumentals with a slight touch of Scottish traditional music ( happily, no bagpipes though!). Interestingly, the only vocal track on the album is provided by Gerry Rafferty, who had a huge solo hit in Britain with "Baker Street" in the late seventies, and was part of Stealers Wheel, who did "Stuck in the Middle With You", which is the soundtrack to the infamous ear removal scene in Resevoir Dogs.
  16. I'm not certain that sales should be taken into account as a criteria for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Its logical that big, popular acts will sell in large quantities, but we can all think of plenty of artistically worthless acts who move big money and shift product by the truckload. The charts are consistently full of these people, most of who are forgotten within six months! Similarly , there are many truly great musicians who don't ever achieve anything more than a cult following, and therefore never sell many records. But you are quite right that, in the end, it doesn't really matter much if someone is in the Hall of Fame or not. The place is run strictly as a commercial enterprise, so its not as if inclusion bestows some sort of universal musical approval; its all just subjective opinions. At least it provides one good reason to visit Cleveland!
  17. Sorry to rock the boat, but its not true that Rush are popular with everyone!. Personally, I find them very dull and the singer's voice ( I don't even know his name) is too shrill to be listenable without laughing at him. They remind me of Queen at their over-blown worst, and I'm no fan of theirs either. I know they have a big fan base in Canada & the US, but over here they barely register on the radar. Thankfully.
  18. There are so many great Little Feat tracks that its hard to know where to begin, but here's a few of the very best: Dixie chicken, Rock & roll doctor, Oh Atlanta, Feats don't fail me now, All that you dream, Willin', Fat man in the bathtub, Rocket in my pocket,.... there's a very good greatest hits album called "As time goes by" which contains all of these.
  19. If you like these kinds of bands, then I'd strongly recommend Little Feat to you. They were great at their peak.
  20. No, it doesn't suck at all. I'm in my thirties, white , what most people would call suburban middle class, and English...so I'm not exactly in the target sales group for rap.. But rap and Hip hop is the most vibrant and important current modern music, and its been around for nearly twenty years now, so its not as if its a shock anymore. Sure, I get bored of repetitive songs that are just a list of how much money the guy's got, or how many people he's shot or rubbish like that. But the best rap is inventive, clever , and often very funny. Most of all, its the only music that is still rebellious and anti-establishment. And that was kind of the point with rock in the first place, in case anyone's forgotten.
  21. Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass were b-boys?? I think someone should have told them ::
  22. Chaff, the former member you are referring to is Syd Barrett. In fact, he wasn't just a band member, but the founder, main song writer and lead guitarist..so he pretty much was Pink Floyd in their early years. His behaviour became increasingly erratic and unpredictable, to the point where the rest of the band felt they couldn't work with him any longer, and he resigned / was fired (depending on who 's story you choose to believe) in February 1968. At that point he was medically recognized as a manic depressive, so at least his break down wasn't specifically drug related!. He realeased a couple of strange but critically popular solo albums, and currently lives as a recluse in a small rural town in England, never speaking to the press..I guess you could call him weird but harmless. He remains very much an underground cult hero, and there are plenty of Floyd fans who would argue that they were never as good after he left. If you like folkie-influenced sad songs, his solo work is worth checking out.
  23. The song has been covered by many artists, but the definitive version is by PP Arnold, who turns a good song into a great one
  24. Like most Dylan songs, the meaning is in the ear of the beholder! It might be about a messianic figure, but he wrote it many years before his ( happily brief) born again christian phase, so that interpretation seems unlikely to me. I suspect a more likely answer is that it doesn't really have any particularly deep meaning at all; I've always regarded it as one of his more off-the-cuff efforts, a pleasant enough song but not one that ranks anywhere near his best work.Sometimes even Dylan writes just for his own amusement!
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