My Five Favorite Christmas Songs
Il Est Né le Divin Enfant
Steeleye Span – ‘Gaudete‘
Walking in the Air
Carry Me Home – Hey, Rosetta
I Saw Three Ships
Jennifer Hudson – ‘I Can’t Let Go’ on Smash
I know it’s fashionable to hate on Smash recently, but you gotta at least admit that Jennifer Hudson KILLS this song. I’ve been playing this on repeat all week. Favorite line – “And when heartache comes a’calling, / I won’t even try to run / Cause it’s all that makes me know that I’m alive.” (Not exactly applicable in my life right now given that I’m happily married, but it still resonates.)
Steph’s Top 40 Tunes from the 80s
I put this playlist together several years back when I had a big 80s party, but after that I managed to lose it, except that I had a copy on CD, thankfully. So here are my favorite 80s tunes, mostly in order from “pretty cheesy” to “really good.”
- Love’s Been A Little Bit Hard On Me / Juice Newton / 3:21
- Johnny Are You Queer? / Josie Cotton / 2:53
- Breakaway / Tracy Ullman / 2:43
- Tired of Toein’ The Line / Rocky Burnette / 3:52
- You’re My Favorite Waste of Time / Owen Paul / 3:07
- What I Like About You / The Romantics / 3:05
- I’ll Be (500 Miles) / The Proclaimers / 3:46
- Like A Prayer / Madonna / 5:58
- Video Killed The Radio Star / BuGgles / 3:21
- One Night in Bangkok / Murray Head & Anders Glenmark / 4:15
- Dancing With Myself / Billy Idol / 4:57
- Goody Two Shoes / Adam Ant / 3:34
- You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart / Eurythmics / 3:56
- Veronica / Elvis Costello / 3:17
- I Melt With You / Modern English / 3:58
- Bullet The Blue Sky / U2 / 4:38
- Orange Crush / R.E.M. / 4:01
- Punk Rock Girl / The Dead Milkmen / 2:44
- Knock On Wood / Amii Stewart / 3:47
- I Beg Your Pardon / Kon Kan / 4:02
- Erotic City / Prince / 3:59
- A Little Respect / Erasure / 3:31
- Just Can’t Get Enough / Depeche Mode / 3:39
- It’s A Sin / Pet Shop Boys / 5:02
- Blue Monday / New Order / 7:32
- Kids In America / Kim Wilde / 3:33
- Don’t Leave Me This Way / The Communards / 4:37
- Under The Milky Way / The Church / 5:02
- Pictures of You / The Cure / 4:51
- Should I Stay or Should I Go / The Clash / 3:08
- Blood and Roses / The Smithereens / 3:40
- Unsatisfied / The Replacements / 4:05
- Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now / The Smiths / 3:37
- Under The Killing Moon / Echo & The Bunnymen / 5:50
- The Beat(en) Generation / The The / 3:09
- Stigmata / Ministry / 5:48
- Institutionalized / Suicidal Tendencies / 3:32
- Love Is a Stranger / Eurythmics / 3:40
- Love Will Tear Us Apart / Joy Division / 3:24
- Bring Me Edelweiss / Edelweiss / 3:42
Paula Cole: Mississippi
This song falls under the heading of really awesome music I’ve rediscovered in my music library recently. Of course I was listening to Paula Cole something like 10 years ago (1996 – so 15 years ago.) At a particular time in my life when I was completely in love with a woman who was in love with one of my exes – so the “piece of my heart on the sole of your shoe” line really hit home with me.
If you want the mp3 – Amazon has it: Mississippi (Album Version) [Explicit]
I’m skeptical sometimes of the lyrics you find out there on the lyrics sites – I wonder if these are quite accurate? I’ll have to pull out the album and see if it has lyrics in the notes.
I know I’m big and proud all over
not just on the stage
my secret self has many sides
that laugh and crush and stain
I’m red and thick like fire
I like it from behind
but round to black
and red to white
I’m pure and sad and silent
CHORUS:
I know I’ve
gotta piece of my heart
on the sole of your shoe
I’ve got a little bit of thunder
trapped inside of a cloud
the dog in you
spit me out into the Mississippi
I know who can love my many selves
the wife, the bitch, the Rapunzel
the one who cries
and calls for you
the one who is always alone
chorus
oh Mississippi
come and wash my pain away
oh Mississippi
come and take my pain away
I feel I’m drowning
I feel I’m drowning
I feel I’m
I feel I’m
dying
chorus (3 times)
We need a little christmas
Mame (1966 Original Broadway Cast)
Mame:
Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute.
It hasn’t snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we’re in a hurry;
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I’ve ever seen.
Slice up the fruitcake;
It’s time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For I’ve grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
All:
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now.
Mame:
Haul out the holly;
Well, once I taught you all to live each living day.
All:
Fill up the stocking,
Young Patrick:
But Auntie Mame, it’s one week from Thanksgiving Day now.
All:
But we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute.
Agnes:
It hasn’t snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we’re in a hurry;
Ito:
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I’ve ever seen.
All:
Slice up the fruitcake;
It’s time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For we need a little music,
Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy
“Happy ever after,”
Need a little Christmas now.
Need a little Christmas now.
Weakest Shade of Blue
won’t you come away with me
and begin something we can’t understand
i’m as lonely as the Irish Sea
i’m as willing as the sand
could it be so wrong, so wrong?
could it be so wrong, so wrong?
won’t you come unbury me
could you light me up like a lemon grove
i’ll save you from this dreamy life
to the hardest love you could ever know
could it be so wrong, so wrong?
could it be so wrong, so wrong?
but don’t cry baby,
please don’t cry baby
i’ll be tender til the day i die
this love i have for you is terrible and true
how this sheltered loveless life
fades into the weakest shade of blue
its ruinous and true
how this sheltered loveless life
fades into the weakest shade of blue
weakest shade of blue
could it be so wrong, so wrong?
could it be so wrong, so wrong?
but don’t cry baby,
please don’t cry baby
i’ll be tender til the day i die
this love i have for you is terrible and true
how this sheltered loveless life
fades into the weakest shade of blue
weakest shade of blue…
Woodie Guthrie on songwriting
“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing.
Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling.
I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built.
I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.”
California Stars
Words: woody guthrie – music: jay bennett/jeff tweedy 1997
Sung by Billy Bragg/Wilco
I’ve had this song in my music library with a bunch of other Wilco for awhile but never really listened to it until it was mentioned in a couple different blogs I read. I threw it in a playlist recently and it popped up this morning on the way to work, so I have it stuck in my head…
I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d love to feel your hand touching mine
And tell me why I must keep working on
Yes, I’d give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars
Jump up from my starbed and make another day
Underneath my California stars
They hang like grapes on vines that shine
And warm the lovers glass lke friendly wine
So, I’d give this world
Just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars
Music Rediscovered
We finally we able to upgrade the firmware on our Terabyte server last weekend, and it’s finally behaving in a stable fashion with iTunes (fingers crossed). It was apparently having trouble with long file names (!) and iTunes loves to create long file names, so it kept hiccuping. Since I’ve been home this week, I’ve been able to sort out and reload lots of our music that was acting funny, and I’ve been able re-rip lots of our CDs that have been buried in boxes since we moved in. One of my old favorites I haven’t listened to in many years – the Doo Wop Box.
I’ve been running around the house singing along – Stephanie’s already rolling her eyes. It’s probably safe to say you might here a few songs from this boxed set at our wedding reception, like maybe this…
Buzz Buzz Buzz
The Hollywood Flames
(The Doo Wop Box: 101 Vocal Group Gems from the Golden Age of Rock ‘N’ Roll)
(wha-ooh, wha-ooh, wha-ooh, wha-ooh)
Well buzz buzz buzz goes the bumble bee
A twiddledeedledee goes a bird
But the sound of your little voice, darling,
Its the sweetest sound Ive ever heard.
Well, Ive seen the beauty of the red, red rose,
Seen the beauty when the skies are blue,
Seen the beauty of the evening sunset- but the beauty of you!
Sweet is the honey from the honeycomb,
Sweet are the grapes from the vine,
But theres nothing as sweet as you, darling,
And I hope some day you’ll be mine!
24,000 some songs gone
I took my 200 GB external drive with all of my music on it to CompUSA this weekend to have it put in a new enclosure, because the old one was going bad. I had this happen before to a Maxtor drive – the enclosure doesn’t spin the drive fast enough, apparently, so the disk kept crapping out while transferring music. I considered trying to back up the 120 GB of music on the drive, but I don’t have another drive that big, and I was afraid I’d kill the bad one while copying the music over. We were planning to get a music server soon for our home WAN, so that we could both use the same music library for our multi-platformed (PC and Mac) household, so I didn’t want to invest in a whole new external drive right now, with all the other household expenses.
I know I was taking quite a chance in handing the drive over to teen-aged clerks without having a backup copy – I certainly knew better. They reformatted the drive and wiped all my music from it, along with all the cover art I created for my mix cds.
I’ll have to run the totals from iTunes when I get home, but it was something on the order of 24,000 songs on the drive. Fortunately, most of the important stuff to us is on CD, but trying to figure out about music I bought from iTunes is my biggest concern.
Sigh. We have a lot of re-ripping to do. At least it was only music, though. If it had been my photos or design stuff I’d be bouncing off the ceiling right now.
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