Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.
Big day at the office today, but it's Friday night while I write this and the weekend is here. Hooray! Picnic on Sunday for Miss 2's 3rd birthday and the wife's (redacted) birthday. Miss 5 lost her first tooth and scored $2 from the Tooth Fairy. She said tonight she wants to go to an Op Shop and buy a record. I'm so proud *sniff*. [Edit: It's Saturday now and she actually bought a hardback copy of Little Women. Still very proud!]
Also proud to say I managed to collate another list worth hearing (for me). I've got some Belle & Sebastian because I was late to that party; the gangsta classic from NWA; a Toy Box Scholars set; another Phil Collins classic; Natalie Merchant's criminally underrated Tigerlily thanks to @BZB; Pablo Honey because I recently discovered my copy had gone missing and bought a new one; some early Creedence; the new one from the Shins; a Hoodoo Gurus compilation and finally, the exhaustive and tremendous Uncle Tupelo Anthology.
Check it out:
Big day at the office today, but it's Friday night while I write this and the weekend is here. Hooray! Picnic on Sunday for Miss 2's 3rd birthday and the wife's (redacted) birthday. Miss 5 lost her first tooth and scored $2 from the Tooth Fairy. She said tonight she wants to go to an Op Shop and buy a record. I'm so proud *sniff*. [Edit: It's Saturday now and she actually bought a hardback copy of Little Women. Still very proud!]
Also proud to say I managed to collate another list worth hearing (for me). I've got some Belle & Sebastian because I was late to that party; the gangsta classic from NWA; a Toy Box Scholars set; another Phil Collins classic; Natalie Merchant's criminally underrated Tigerlily thanks to @BZB; Pablo Honey because I recently discovered my copy had gone missing and bought a new one; some early Creedence; the new one from the Shins; a Hoodoo Gurus compilation and finally, the exhaustive and tremendous Uncle Tupelo Anthology.
Check it out:
- Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
- NWA - Straight Outta Compton
- Toy Box Scholars - The Bonus Years
- Phil Collins - Face Value
- Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily
- Radiohead - Pablo Honey
- Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys
- The Shins - Port of Morrow
- Hoodoo Gurus - Gold Watch: 20 Golden Greats
- Uncle Tupelo - 89/93 An Anthology
Top Five Artists Last Week
- George Harrison
- Ghostface Killah
- Counting Crows
- MC Shan
- Phil Collins
Song of the Week : Bruce Springsteen - Racing In The Street
Back when Springsteen started releasing albums, there were a lot of comparisons to Dylan. At their very best, Dylan's songs have phenomenal musicianship and brilliant lyrics, while his voice is a mere conduit to carry those words to us. At Bruce's best, the words and the voice are so captivating that the music kind of disappears, no matter how loud or intense it gets.
This song, Racing in the Street, is from start to end like a complete film. A couple of guys race cars that they make for money on the New Jersey streets. One day they meet a girl and one of them settles down with her. Life goes on and racing cars for fun with no responsibilities gives way to day to day grind and the couple loses their freedom and spark. Until one day, at the end of the film, they ride off into the sunset.
I've been watching The Promise which is a doco about the making of the Darkness on the Edge of Town LP. Springsteen himself used cinema analogies to explain all the songs. He said for instance that if the whole album was a film of a romantic couple at a picnic, the song Adam Raised a Cain was a quick cut to a dead body.
It's a long song and it feels like an epic story of love and honour and friendship and class and loss and hope and everything else. It's a large chunk of blue collar New Jersey life peeled open and laid out bare.
This song, Racing in the Street, is from start to end like a complete film. A couple of guys race cars that they make for money on the New Jersey streets. One day they meet a girl and one of them settles down with her. Life goes on and racing cars for fun with no responsibilities gives way to day to day grind and the couple loses their freedom and spark. Until one day, at the end of the film, they ride off into the sunset.
I've been watching The Promise which is a doco about the making of the Darkness on the Edge of Town LP. Springsteen himself used cinema analogies to explain all the songs. He said for instance that if the whole album was a film of a romantic couple at a picnic, the song Adam Raised a Cain was a quick cut to a dead body.
It's a long song and it feels like an epic story of love and honour and friendship and class and loss and hope and everything else. It's a large chunk of blue collar New Jersey life peeled open and laid out bare.
Tah Tah
As always, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully something here will inspire you to listen to a record you really enjoy - even if it's not on the list. Be good to each other, don't get hung up, man. Be cool.
Hasala malakim.
Hasala malakim.
