Tag: Guns N Roses

Random Shuffle – July 17, 2006: Digital Underground, Journey, Coldplay, Guns N Roses, & Hart-Rouge

Originally written on July 18, 2006.

“Humpty Dance” – Digital Underground
from Sex Packets

My first thought when I listen to this 80s classic is about how dirty it is. It’s really quite filthy. I’m surprised my mother allowed me to listen to it. Of course, as a child, which I was when this was a hit, I didn’t grasp the blatant innuendo splattered throughout. I just thought it was a funny song with a silly character in a mask.

Reading the lyrics I’m kind of amazed this became a hit and didn’t hit all the censors. If memory serves this was right around the 2 Live Crew law suits – maybe that’s it, nobody bothered with a guy talking about tickling ladies’ rears with his nose when the Crew was being way more explicit. Or maybe the song is so funny nobody minded the crassness.

Now I can’t help but sing along and blush at the filthiness.

“Faithfully” – Journey
from Greatest Hits (You didn’t think I owned real Journey albums, did you?)

File this under embarrassingly sappy songs that I love. My friend Mullins, you see, graduated from Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Clown College. That’s right, there is a college for clowns, and it is amazingly difficult to get into. Mullins went, graduated, and even though never landed a job in the circus is a clown through and through.

There is a lyric in this song that goes something like this:

Circus life
Under the big top world
We all need the clowns
To make us smile

Whatever cheesy parts reside deep in my guts, they get all gooshy when I hear those lines. I can remember driving north of Birmingham, Alabama headed back to college in Montgomery, and tearing up over those lines, missing my pal who had recently taken off to Tennessee. Funny how the mushy parts make us all twirly inside, even though it’s nothing but cheese.

“I Used To Love Her” – Guns N Roses
from G N’ R Lies

A great rock n roller about murder. My friend Juliana (who happens to be married to the clown Mullins) says that all great country artists have to write a song about killing someone. Well, Guns N Roses area bout as far as you can get from country, but this is a great murdering song.

It is a great song to sing loud, and then get evil glares from those who don’t know the song. It’s also a great song to irritate my wife with, and she knows the darn song.

“Yellow” – Coldplay
from Parachutes

For the longest time, I thought this was a Pearl Jam song and it caused my renewed interest in the band. It has since become the only Coldplay song I enjoy. The rest of their songs are too whiney and too soft to be rockers. I always feel like they are playing soft as a tease and then they are gonna hit it with some awesome rock, only to be left with a lot of softness.

I really dig the relaxing summertime vibe of this song. It makes me want to roll out my blanket and lay out under the stars.

“Dieu a Nos Cotes” (With God On Our Side) Hart–Rouge
from A Nod To Bob

Reading reviews of this Bob Dylan tribute album I find that this song is almost universally despised. I rather adore it. It’s a lilting, beautiful thing. Though most reviewers don’t really say why they don’t like it, that it is in French seems to be the problem stewing behind the bad-mouthing. Perhaps this is due to those not understanding the language (and after all, it is the language of Dylan that most love).

The song itself is an anti-war rant that touches on all the major wars of the US up until the cold war. I suspect some detractors rather despise the fact that Dylan is speaking out so directly against war and that this new version may be using his words as a means to rail against the current war in Iraq (and in French no less, how dare those spineless bastards speak out against war, don’t they know we saved their asses in both World Wars?. Never mind that the band is French-Canadian.)

I speak a little French, but I can’t really understand what they’re saying. Looking at comparison lyrics it seems like the translation is pretty literal, but who knows they may have thrown in an “American is a hate-filled war-mongering country” and I might have not noticed. But the thing that is interesting is that none of the reviews mentioned any change in Dylan’s lyrics, but seem to hate it being translated into French. I would think fans would enjoy the fact that other languages are taking note.

Me? I love the song. I’m not a big fan of the English version, honestly, but it is such a soft lilting thing in the French.

Random Shuffle (05/08/06) – Gene Autry, Otis Redding, Prince, Jeff Tweedy & Guns N Roses

sleepless in seattle

“Back in the Saddle Again” – Gene Autry
From the Sleeping in Seattle soundtrack

Though a bit of a cheesy romantic comedy, Sleepless in Seattle sports a very nice soundtrack consisting of great vocal jazz, old country, and classic standards. This Gene Autry number is the kind of country music I love. Before country music was bastardized by slick production and the anti-Christ named Shania Twain it was full of old cowboy songs and blues-inspired cheatin’ songs.

It is music with a heart. Everyone’s heard the old joke about what you get if you play a country song backward – you get your wife back, your house, back, your dog back… – but there is a sincerity and a joy to that music not felt in Nashville proper for years.

otis blue

“You Don’t Miss Your Water” – Otis Redding
from Otis Blue

Nobody sings soul music like Otis Redding. There is so much heartache in his voice he could make a statue of Hitler cry. Yet he could jump out of his soul with some rhythm and blues.

He does a version of “Satisfaction” that even Keith Richards says sounds more like what he wanted than the Stones version.

This is a slow, soulful number with heartbreaking lyrics, but it’s not my favorite Otis tune. It’s just a tad too slow for my liking, without a great melody to back it.

It’s still powerful Otis soul, but if I was recommending Otis Redding sad songs, I’d head for “These Arms Of Mine” or “Pain in My Heart” before I led anyone to this song.

purple rain

“When Doves Cry” – Prince
from Purple Rain

Ah, Prince when he was just Prince. They say his last album was pretty smokin’ but I have to admit I haven’t given it a spin. Judging from his appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a couple of years back, he’s still got it though.

This song reminds me of my sophomore year at college. There was a social club on campus that were nicknamed the Doves. Pledges had to sing this song at will, or maybe they had it on a t-shirt. Anyways this was their song.

A great freaking song it is. Killer guitar, a sweet backbeat, and Prince doing his Prince thing like no other.

“I’m the Man Who Loves You” – Jeff Tweedy
from 3/05/05

From a live acoustic solo gig, he did in Chicago. Well, later he was joined by most of Wilco, but the first set is nothing but Tweedy and his guitar. He does some old Tupelo numbers and lots of Wilco favorites.

This version suffers a little without the band, but it’s cool to hear these songs stripped down to just the basic melody and Tweedy’s oddball lyrics. He actually manages some pretty good fast picking on his little acoustic.

I keep expecting to hear the crowd really sing along since it must have been an intimate show, but I never do. I guess they had respect for the man and the song and didn’t want to disturb him.

“Paradise City” – Guns N Roses
from (10/2/87)

There has been a lot of brouhaha over Axl Rose and the new Guns N Roses album that has supposedly been coming out for several years now. This is the stuff that keeps people talking about a band that really hasn’t done anything since the early 1990s.

The sound quality on this live performance is a little muddled, but the blazing, explosion coming from the band is enough to blow out the speakers and make the neighbors call the cops.

Axl is all over the place screaming like a mad chimpanzee on fire. Slash tears the mutha up with his solo. The rest of the band blazes like a blind demon on Judgment Day. I just got this bootleg in the mail yesterday, so I can’t say much about the rest of the disk, but if this version is anything like the rest, then sign me up for the reunion tour.