Blogs are so passe and pretentious. Oh well, here's my blog about music that's stuck in my head when I wake up in the mornings along with adventures of the Cash family and wacky wacky crazy wacky shenanigans.
I'm getting tired of all the emails*/texts*/phone calls* of people complaining about my not blogging regularly on Sundays as I used to do.
*I am not getting any emails texts or phone calls
So, to appease your hungry appetite for blog posts about songs stuck in my head on Sunday mornings, here are the last few songs.
The first one comes from my girlfriend, Tori Amos- and I think this song is a pure example of what the lady does so well. It's called "Muhammad my Friend" and it's from Amos' ambitious 1996 album "Boys For Pele."
Don't try to understand too much if you're going to delve into Amos' lyrics, but this song sort of illustrates her idea that Christ could have been a woman. It's a bold, daring statement, whether Amos takes it literally or not doesn't matter to me, perhaps it's just a feminist statement- whatever it is, I find it interesting and different and totally and utterly Tori Amos, always pushing barriers.
Here's the song, even if the lyrics trouble you, I hope you'll listen to the feeling of the music, which is lovely and brilliant.
Alrighty then, on to the next song, which also features a strong female.
(Side note, women are rad, you should get to know one if you have some free time)
This one comes from the beloved 1964 musical "Hello Dolly!" If you've seen the show, you'll know that Dolly Levi is a sort of adored busy-body/wheeler-and-dealer kind of character. The song stuck in my head features the very song that sets up her character, which is in the opening number of the show. The song is called "Just Leave Everything To Me" and here's what it sounds like:
I hope you enjoyed these songs and this blog post, which I have to believe is literally the only blog post on the planet about Tori Amos and Dolly Levi. Maybe not. If you can find another post about both of these lovely ladies, I'll give you a dollar next time I see you.
Here's another song from this production of "Forever Plaid" that is stuck in my head. I sort of have to eat, sleep and breathe these songs since some of these arrangements I'm learning to sing are the hardest I've ever done.
Today's song is called "Shangri-La" which was first written in 1946 and made popular in the 50's by some of the groups I'm now mimicking in this production.
Man, am I in trouble- I've gotten involved a local production of Forever Plaid and man, oh man, are these songs catchy.
Plan on the majority of the blog posts for the next two months dedicated to these songs, which have perpetually been stuck in my head since we started rehearsals two weeks ago.
First from a few weeks ago is "Crazy Bout Ya Baby" which was first made popular by the Crew Cuts in 1954:
Next, is a song I learned from the same production, is called "Undecided" and I'm gonna be lazy and copy what it says about the song on Wikipedia-
The first recording was made by John Kirby and The Onyx Club Boys on October 28, 1938, and released by Decca Records as catalog number 2216,[1] with the flip side "From A Flat to C".[2]
It was also recorded by Chick Webb and his Orchestra with vocal by Ella Fitzgerald on February 17, 1939 and released by Decca Records as catalog number 2323, with the flip side "In the Groove at the Grove".[2]
I'm behind a bit- which I suppose is consistent to the blase approach I have lately to my blog.
Anyway, here was the SSIMH from Sunday October 29th- the fantastick (pun intended) "Try To Remember" from the 1960 musical "The Fantasticks" This is one of those melodies that just sticks with you- very catchy but lovely the same:
Ok, the following Sunday, the 5th of November, I had this gem from Phil Collins in my head- Like him or not, Collins is a songsmith in his own right.
Here's "Don't Lose My Number" from Collins' 1985 album "No Jacket Required"
*FUN FACT* my Aunt Shanna bought this album for me on cassette tape. It was nice to be spoiled by a favorite Aunt at the age of 6.
this one busted its way into my head because I was asked to pick a hymn I love to sing in church. I love this sing and it’s by Martin Luther, who is to be admired.
If you’re interested in Martin Luther’s life, here’s a killer documentary. Watch!
I give you (blog reader) maybe a 6 or 6.5 out of ten.
After blogging consistently for the last 6 years or so, I took a break for about 6 weeks. I thought I was maybe done, but I missed it. I missed sharing music and joking around about goofy music and sharing good music.
I hope that maybe one or two people actually read this- it's never been my goal to become blogger-famous, but there's the inner-narcissist who hopes for some attention by way of the blog.
ANYWAY, I'm back for the time being I'm back to share another song and the dream that accompanied the featured song today.
So, I'm dreaming and in the dream there's me and my Megan. We are at a concert, but it's not only a concert, it's also a sketch on Saturday Night Live (just roll with it, I've always wanted to be on SNL and I love concerts so my mind was in the right place.) So, as we're anxiously waiting for the band comes out and Megan says something like:
And then the band comes out- I didn't know it at the time but we were listening 1960's blues powerhouse band, Canned Heat. Here is the song:
But here's the funny thing, in the dream the lyrics are morbid, something like:
♫I'm Going up the country,
I'm gonna stab a guy in the face ♪
♪I'm Going up the country
I just might bite off some dudes ear ♫
And Megan is just dancing, laughing and just loving the song, but she's also distracted so she can't hear the lyrics, so I'm like:
And of course she doesn't hear the murderous lyrics because she's distracted, so when she pays attention the singer reverts back to the standard lyrics.
This went on for some time.
When I woke up I had to look up the song, and figure out that I was dreaming about Canned Heat and didn't even know the band (just knew the song)
This week I thought about quitting this blog. But I just can do that. Not sure why.
Let the Elvis fest continue!
This song's week is The King's "Burning Love" which first appeared as a single in 1972. Like many of Elvis' songs, it's a cover of a country song written by Dennis Linde and first performed by Arthur Alexander who recorded it that same year.
I grew up on the Beatles, not Elvis. This is because Elvis was a decade behind my parents' teen years. I've never really listened to Elvis music- other than the standard songs which inevitably you will hear at one time or another.
A couple of months ago, I reluctantly tried out and accepted a role in a production of the Musical "All Shook Up." My reluctance to be involved in the production was related to having just finished one production and maybe a little toward my apathy when it comes to Elvis Presley.
Little did I know that over time, these songs, littered throughout this show, would begin to grow on me and incidentally weasel into my head. Being away from my kids while I perform is stressful and I worry about what it does to them. And I know what it does to the order of my life when I'm spending less time at home- the house gets messy and we get behind on "things" in the house.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is Elvis (even though he really wasn't much of a writer, so much as an iconic performer) was great and the songs he made famous are fun and are now getting stuck in my head.
"Blue Suede Shoes"was originally performed by Elvis on his debut, and self-titled, 1956 album. If you happened to buy this album in 1956, Blue Suede shoes would have been the first song you ever heard by The King! But if you were smart, you would have known that the song, although immortalized by Elvis, had actually been written and performed the year prior by Carl Perkins.
Here's Perkins' version of the song:
And here's The King!
And just for funzees here's a picture of me and the wife in this crazy, silly, fun show we're doing, "All Shook Up" at the Terrace Plaza playhouse in Ogden. Fun fact: Fake Leather doesn't breathe and wearing it as a costume under hot lights is pretty neat!
Today is a good song by my boyfriend Ben Folds with lyrics by Author Nick Hornby.
This is "Claire's Ninth" which lyrically tells the story of a young girl, named Claire (I've always LOVED that name) celebrating her ninth birthday with her parents who have recently separated. It's a sad song, but it a goodun.
Listen to the lyrics and love the music.
I live in a home with step-children. I've been around them a dang long time, long enough that we are pretty familiar (notice how the word familiar is derived from 'family') but I've been them suffer in deep ways by having divorced parents. It can be ugly- I hope we all deal with it pretty ok, but I know the pain is always there for them.
I know divorce is ultimately the final option for certain people and so I can't condemn it entirely- I know it's hard on kids though. I don't know what I'm getting at- I try to work at it and work through all tough situations with my wife. I think we have a good marriage and I am happy about it. I hope my step-kids love me even though I'm not biological- I know I love them.
I'm a couple days late getting to this, but Sunday morning I had the well-known 'Do-Re-Mi' from The Sound of Music stuck in my head, but the lyrics were a little different. I'll play the song for those who want to hear it and then explain what was going on with the words in my head....
OK! So.... I served an LDS mission in Rome, Italy from 1998 to 2000. I was 19 when I left, 21 when I came home. During that time, I served in 6 different cities (Potenza, Avellino, Rome, Carbonia, Ascoli Piceno and Cagliari.) I loved my time there and I made tons of friends, both those who were of my faith and those who weren't as well as loads of other missionaries.
In this post I'm giving a shout out to Dan Smith- we met at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah and ended up in the same apartment in Rome, Italy in the spring of 1999. We were immediate friends, and we still are.
So... I'm tangenting (not a word) a bit, but as missionaries we are taught something called "The Commitment Pattern" which is a tool to get the investigators we are teaching to really commit to do and try certain things as they are considering becoming Mormon. We used to jokingly call it "the manipulation pattern" which I guess is funny, even though I hope from the bottom of my heart that nobody I taught as a missionary felt manipulated by me! I'm going to list the steps in the commitment pattern and then explain their relevance to this post today.
(I'm doing this by memory so I'm sure I got something wrong)
1. Build relationships of trust with your investigators
2. Feel and recognize The Holy Spirit
3. Present your message- teach.
4. Find out- ask questions to understand what they're thinking
5. Resolve Concerns as they come up
6. Invite, using "will you" as a segue. "Will you attend church this Sunday?" for example.
7. Follow Up at a later date
At one Missionary Zone Conference, we were told to put a skit together for other missionaries- which was a fun way to break up the hard work we were doing day-to-day. Putting the skit together was right up mine and Dan's alley as we are both singers and creative people, so we worked hard to make a fantastic, hilarious skit. The end product made me really proud.
I don't remember all the details (this was nearly 20 years ago) but there was a part in the skit where we were making time to teach "The Commitment Pattern" to other missionaries, Dan and I played the teachers and began singing to the melody of "Do-Re-Mi"
♫ Let's Start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you Read you begin with 'A-B-C'
When you teach you Begin with 'B-R-T ♪ (Build Relationships of Trust)
Anyway, this went into the chorus of 'Do-Re-Mi' with the following lyrics:
♪Trust- is what you need to build"
"Spirit- must be felt and recognized"
"Then Present- the true message"
"Find out everything you can"
"When brought up, Resolve Concerns"
"Invite, Committing with 'Will You'"
"Follow up- A.S.A.P."
"That will bring us back to B.R.T....T!♫
Then we went into a choreographed dance section when we ended up in a circle holding hands, but adhering to mission rules, we placed Book of Mormons between the male and female missionaries so that they would be holding the edges of the book instead of hands!
Our Ragtag Group of Missionary Performers (I'm the one biting a tie)
So, who knows why- I've learned lots of things over the years and I've retained little, but for some reason, this parody we did on 'Do-Re-Mi' has always stuck in my head, and the lyrics were there Sunday morning as well.
I loved my time in Italy and this is a very happy and fun memory for me.
I hope this story was funny to some and not just some random, lame, inside joke.
Part of the fun for me with this blog is the unexpected or unusual songs that I get to write about.
My brain decided to take me back to the 90's, AKA glory days, to get a band's song stuck in my head that I hadn't thought of in years.
Fugees were everywhere in 1996- they were the IT band of hip-hop, rap/R&B. Nerdy white boys from Utah like me even listened to them!
And thanks to my random brain, I'm listening to them again today! Huzzah.
Here's "Ready or Not" which was a big hit for once-big music group:
Did I take anyone else down memory lane with this one?
Fun facts!
The chorus of this song is taken from a song from 1968 by The Delfonics. Have a listen:
Oh, just popped into my head, when Ready or Not by the Fugees was famous, I was 17 years old. When Ready or Not by The Delfonics was famous, my dad was also 17. What does this mean?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?
Other random fact about this song. They totally used Enya's music on the recording (The Fugees) without permission, and then she sued, they settled out of court and now she holds songwriting credit as well! So when you stream this song on my blog, YouTube pays both the Fugees and Enya like one penny each!
Here's the song they ripped off from Enya, it's called "Boadicea" since this is a music blog, I'll put it here as well.
So in a way you kind of got a three for one Sundee Fundee, lucky you.
Thanks for creating magic memories with me on this here blog.
I've watched bits and pieces of Disney's "Moana" since we first purchased it for our kids, but for the first time Saturday night I was able to sit and really watch it from start to finish. It's a great movie, very entertaining, engaging and fun. The music is great too so I wasn't surprised when one of its songs got stuck in my head Sunday morning.
I'm horrible with lyrics- I talk about it a lot here, but I'm just now realizing most of this song is in native Tokelauan. I thought they were saying "Away, Away" in this song but they're not! They're saying "Aue Aue" and not because they can't spell, because they're not singing in English, sillies!
"Aue, Aue" means "Oh, oh" for the record.
In fact, just for funzies, I'll give you the meaning of the lyrics in English cause I'm helpful.
