Singapore Rice Noodles update

I still enjoy Singapore Rice Noodles a lot. Mostly get them from just a few blocks away, the Great Wall in Sound Beach. They have gotten really good at this dish, definitely rivaling Sung Wo in Rocky Point. The family who used to run the Great Wall we became friends with. They have a little boy about our daughter Ru-Jun's age. They unfortunately moved to NJ (and started a restaurant there, I believe). Their cousins now run Great Wall. They love to see Ru-Jun come in and always give her lollipops.

Alice's House - Psychedelic Furs

Another favorite of mine. Great ascending bass line in the verse - chromatically gothic sounding. The end of the chorus has a nice rally back into the intro line. Very simple pop song, but extremely elegant.

Groove Salad

My other internet radio favorite is Groove Salad. Trippy, trancy, acid and deep housey. Great music to work to in the lab or take a nap to. Very atmospheric.

Flashback Alternatives

Listened to Flashback Alternatives for the first time in probably about a year while I was working in lab today. This is simply the best 80s music station I've ever found on the web. There are a few commercials but this is a small price to pay for the range of 80s alternative and pop music that FA plays. At various times in the past I interacted with the regulars on the website there and I even donated a couple of 'Til Tuesday CDs to DJ Ed, who runs the station a few years ago. I'm really glad this station has been able to stick around. I've been introduced to a lot of great, more obscure 80s and 80s-inspired more recent music on FA,

Here Come Cowboys - Psychedelic Furs

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. But the video leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately.

Antarctica - Men Without Hats

Very tension filled song in both the studio and their live version. I started working on a much more laid back version on the uke this evening.

A very cool instrument

the shahi baaja

Kid - the Pretenders

Always one of my favorites of theirs, from 1979 (or at least was in the charts then). There is a lot of roughness to the live performance linked below, but it's interesting how they really try to reproduce the studio arrangement and sound of the song on stage. Not easy.

Kid - the Pretenders

Jesse - Carly Simon

Also in the country pop vein, the soulful and catchy Jesse by Carly Simon, from 1980, which got a ton of airplay but has since largely disappeared.

More Multiverse stuff

At each moment, there is a virtually infinite number of possible futures. There is also a virtually infinite number of pasts that could have led to that moment. There are many different ways to get to the same future. But there seems to be only one path through the past which got to the current moment.
Not sure what this means, exactly. But it seems important.

Bette Davis Eyes

Predictably a mention of Kim Carnes is going to turn to this song. a monster hit from 1981 written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon. Sparkling thru the massive radio overplay, it was a striking juxtaposition of Carnes's raspy vocal and machine-like synth pop that somehow produced magic. The chord changes are right in my sweet spot (see also any number of Stevie Nicks songs).

Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers had two songs in the Billboard Top 100 in 1979, The Gambler and She Believes in Me. My favorite song of his is the duet with Kim Carnes Don't Fall In Love With a Dreamer from 1980. Great harmonies.

A 1979 instrumental hit

Rise by Herb Alpert. Replete with the bassline later sampled by The Notorious B.I.G. for Hypnotize. Downtempo, funky, contemporary jazz marketed to the disco buying public. There is a resignedness about the song that seems to anticipate deep house music as well.

Time travel

I don't think time travel is possible. I think that the past does not exist once each moment is gone. At each moment there are essentially infine possible futures all containing that moment as their past. As each time interval ticks by, one of those possible futures becomes the present and access to the previous moment and anything before that is gone forever.

Violence

Our aide Min's favorite country song is El Paso, the 1959 Marty Robbins song. The chords are pretty simple. Classic western story, sad and violent.
El Paso - Marty Robbins

Country Roads - John Denver

John Denver was huge in the 70s when I was growing up. This is one of my favorites from among his many hits. Deceptively simple song. The bridge (C part) makes the song. It just sticks in one more chord in addition to the 1 4 5 constructions that make up the rest of the song.
Country Roads - John Denver

Camphor - The Fixx

I've always had an affinity for this deep cut from the Fixx's 1986 album Walkabout. I used to take afternoon naps listening to this album. Camphor is the last track. It seems to exactly correspond to the feeling of waking up gradually from a comfortable rest.

A 1979 pop gem

It was massively overplayed, but I've always loved Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes. Clean, downtempo, rhythm section hook that drives the verse. Big vocal hook that picks that up in the chorus. Fun story and surprise in the lyrics. Really the perfect pop song.

New songs learned

"Everywhere I Go" a Nick Jr. kids song, "Country Roads" by John Denver, and I'm Walking the Floor Over You" by Ernest Tubb, which IIRC was depicted in the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter".

Cowboy songs so far

There are a lot of songs known as cowboy songs. So far, I know the chords to Home on the Range, My Darling Clementine, Red River Valley, and Ghost Riders in the Sky. Memorizing the lyrics, however, is going to take some time. Next on the radar are El Paso, Back in the Saddle, and Jingle Jangle. These songs tend to have simple structures with just a few chords and have melancholy or even morbidly sad lyrics.

1979

Check out a top 100 singles chart from 1979 and among the many crosscurrents of pop going on at the time you'll find this:
Are Friends Electric? by Gary Numan's band Tubeway Army. Numan could, unembellished, play a humanoid species other than our own in a SF movie. His voice and the cold delivery are clearly pointing to a post-human, yet still romantic, future. Under the tightly orchestrated synthesizers is hard, driving, rock. This is hybrid music from a rich time of hybridization and experimentation.

Gig on Friday

I'll be playing a sing along on me uke at Ru-Jun's day care on Friday. I've been learning and practicing kids and Christmas songs at home most evenings the last month with Ru-Jun singins and dancing along. Teally fun and is helping me to de-stress.
Here is a partial list of the kids songs that I've picked up:
Ive been working on the railroad
My Bonny
Twinkle Twinkle
ABCs
BINGO
the Hokie Pokie
Camptown Races
Yankee Doodle
Puff the Magic Dragon
Oh Susanna
Pop goes the Weasle
You are my Sunshine
The Old Gray Mare
When the Saints Go Marching In
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Itsy Bitsy Spider

Camouflage - Stan Ridgeway

There are probably hundreds of rock songs that bear the strong influence of Ghost Riders in the Sky but one of my favorites is the absolutely brilliant Camouflage by Stan Ridgeway.

Cowboy songs

So far I've learned Clementine, Home on the Range, Red River Valley, and Ghost Riders in the Sky, which might just be the coolest song ever.

Baritone ukulele tuning

Since I am not a guitar player, but i do have some experience with four string bass guitar, I decided to tune the uke in fourths like a bass. So the tuning is C F Bb Eb. This is very unconventional. I could not find any mentions online of this tuning with this instrument although I did see that people like to experiment with different tunings on ukes. I like the fourths tuning even though I have to move up and down the neck a lot for 1-4 and 1-5 changes. I picked up the chords for about 15 holday songs and I have about the same number of childrens' and folk songs, with more on the way. At some point I'll post a list. This has been very fun.

Straight Into Darkness - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Straight Into Darkness Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
No one fused keyboards and guitars in the late 70s/early 80s better than Tom Petty. This song and the Long After Dark album have long been my favorites of his.

The Multiverse

This seems like an intuitive idea. I bet that 100s of people originated it in one form or another and never promoted it as an original idea. It also seems pretty damn untestable, so i.e. not science.

Christine McVie

I've always liked Christine McVie's vocals. Low and smoky in an entirely different way than Stevie Nicks. Her solo work is underrated,
Got a Hold On Me - Christine McVie

Gold- John Stewart

Always live to revisit this late 70s hit that was not spoiled by its massive radio overplay. Probably Stewart's strongest rock effort, having long been established in folk. Intersects with the Fleetwood Mac axis with Stevie Nicks on backing vocals. Great use of the major -relative minor dyad. Nice keyboard line and simple instrumentation.
Gold - John Stewart

Baritone ukulele

I bought myself one of these and tuned it in 4ths like a bass (because I have bass but not 6 string guitar experience) and have been teaching myself how to play chords to accompany singing. Mostly holiday and kids sons so far. Very fun. Mine has a very rich, guitar- like sound. (sorry couldn't post a picture from the web using the iphone app)

I'm Back

Well, Old Grimy lives in Texas now. He did a good job on the blog in 2008 but neither of us had time between then and now to keep it up. No more. I'm back to talk about songs. There is other stuff in my life (mostly good, some bad) but that is for elsewhere. Here is an amazing song (Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan; in case the link below doesn't imbed) from the 70s, which until I looked up its info on Wikipedia I didn't know Stevie Nicks sung backup on (yet another plus for the song). It's a downtempo ballad with echos of Motown in the chorus, but the chord progression (simple involving mostly a minor and the 4 and 5 chords of its relative major) is what makes this song. And the driving, but slowish, tempo. And the incredible sweetness of the chorus. Enjoy.

Magnet and Steel - Walter Egan