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Consecutive Compendium of Culture – Motown, Math rock, Miminalism, Medieval, Merengue, Martial arts, Magic realism, Murder mystery – make merry with a musical and multimedia mix

by 163 Comments

Mid-June and mid compendium – muddling the way through to ‘M’. More and more, this feels like a mindless meditation on a microcosm of the massive material out there.

Maybe, but you’ve been mighty magnanimous to mainline two weeks’ worth of alphabetical goodness 12 times this year. Care to continue? There’s mountains of marvelous melody out there!


(mid period Bob Dylan, c/o Edouard Manet)

Here’s a clip to get things started from a Word-friendly bunch:

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Comments

  15. M is for Midsummer, and tomorrow (well, today actually) this is what a lot of Swedes will be doing:

    (And you wonder why we drink so much on Midsummer Eve…)

      • It’s frogs, not birds, @salwarpe. Apparently, it’s originally a very old English march with lyrics mocking the French!
        The Swedish lyrics go (translated into English):
        “The little frogs
        the little frogs
        are funny to behold
        The little frogs
        the little frogs
        are funny to behold
        No ears, no
        no ears, no
        no tails at all have they
        No ears, no
        no ears, no
        no tails at all have they
        Ko-ack-ack-ack
        ko-ack-ack-ack
        Ko-ack-ack-ack-a-kaaa
        Ko-ack-ack-ack
        ko-ack-ack-ack
        Ko-ack-ack-ack-a-kaaa!”
        There’s a second verse about pigs, where you sing that they do have both ears and tails, but it’s not used as much.
        I’m surprised you haven’t seen it before. I’ve been reliably informed that every Swede who happens to be abroad on Midsummer Eve will gather with other Swedes, find a pillar or something to take the place of the Midsummer pole (can’t call it a maypole in June, can you?) and dance around it singing this song, with silly movements, frog jumps and all.
        Makes me proud to be a Swede… 😉

  20. This is my niece, Martha Marlow, singing a Randy Newman song, which has been used by Qantas in their latest ad campaign. As part of the deal Martha got to go to LA and meet Randy. They went out for breakfast, Martha and her Dad (Jonathan, the bass player in the vid) and Randy and his manager. Randy ordered a big breakfast – scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, hotcakes, jam etc. He put everything except the scrambled eggs to one side, which he proceeded to spread with jam and scoff. He was, apparently, charming and friendly and encouraging.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st-estMl8vU

  22. The Mothers Of Invention – Trouble Every Day

    Well I’m about to get sick
    From watchin’ my TV
    Been checkin’ out the news
    Until my eyeballs fail to see
    I mean to say that every day
    Is just another rotten mess
    And when it’s gonna change, my friend
    Is anybody’s guess

    So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
    Hopin’ for the best
    Even think I’ll go to prayin’
    Every time I hear ’em sayin’
    That there’s no way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day
    No way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day

    Wednesday I watched the riot . . .
    Seen the cops out on the street
    Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff
    And chokin’ in the heat
    Listened to reports
    About the whisky passin’ ’round
    Seen the smoke and fire
    And the market burnin’ down
    Watched while everybody
    On his street would take a turn
    To stomp and smash and bash and crash
    And slash and bust and burn

    And I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
    Hopin’ for the best
    Even think I’ll go to prayin’
    Every time I hear ’em sayin’
    That there’s no way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day
    No way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day

    Well, you can cool it,
    You can heat it . . .
    ‘Cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
    Take your TV tube and eat it
    ‘N all that phony stuff on sports
    ‘N all the unconfirmed reports
    You know I watched that rotten box
    Until my head begin to hurt
    From checkin’ out the way
    The newsman say they get the dirt
    Before the guys on channel so-and-so

    And further they assert
    That any show they’ll interrupt
    To bring you news if it comes up
    They say that if the place blows up
    They will be the first to tell,
    Because the boys they got downtown
    Are workin’ hard and doin’ swell,
    And if anybody gets the news
    Before it hits the street,
    They say that no one blabs it faster
    Their coverage can’t be beat

    And if another woman driver
    Gets machine-gunned from her seat
    They’ll send some joker with a brownie
    And you’ll see it all complete

    So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
    Hopin’ for the best
    Even think I’ll go to prayin’
    Every time I hear ’em sayin’
    That there’s no way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day
    No way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day

    Hey, you know something people?
    I’m not black
    But there’s a whole lots a times
    I wish I could say I’m not white

    Well, I seen the fires burnin’
    And the local people turnin’
    On the merchants and the shops
    Who used to sell their brooms and mops
    And every other household item
    Watched the mob just turn and bite ’em
    And they say it served ’em right
    Because a few of them are white,
    And it’s the same across the nation
    Black and white discrimination
    Yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
    ‘N all that other jazz they hand me
    In the papers and TV and
    All that mass stupidity
    That seems to grow more every day
    Each time you hear some nitwit say
    He wants to go and do you in
    Because the color of your skin
    Just don’t appeal to him
    (No matter if it’s black or white)
    Because he’s out for blood tonight

    You know we got to sit around at home
    And watch this thing begin
    But I bet there won’t be many live
    To see it really end
    ‘Cause the fire in the street
    Ain’t like the fire in the heart
    And in the eyes of all these people
    Don’t you know that this could start
    On any street in any town
    In any state if any clown
    Decides that now’s the time to fight
    For some ideal he thinks is right
    And if a million more agree
    There ain’t no Great Society
    As it applies to you and me
    Our country isn’t free
    And the law refuses to see
    If all that you can ever be
    Is just a lousy janitor
    Unless your uncle owns a store
    You know that five in every four
    Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
    Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
    And make up songs about being poor

    Blow your harmonica, son!

  23. Now you’re talking. I’ve always felt that Western culture never really hit its stride until M. ‘Early alphabet’ music, art and theatre is all very well, charming, some might say, in its naif ingenuity; but it’s only with M that we start to see the first indications of the rich seam of culture which runs all the way to T. M’s bold statements, particularly coming hard on the back of the jaded ennui K and L, mark the moment when Listing Everything You Can Think of Which Begins With A Certain Letter really explodes into the public consciousness.

    Some say this golden era is almost immediately undermined by the doldrums of O and Q, but I say – what of Opera? What of Oprah? What of Oil Painting, and Orville? What of Quilt-making or Quilted bog roll? Lowlights to some, undoubtedly, but many contend that the renaissance of R-T could not have happened without them, and the long tail of cultural dissolution which we now recognise as the U-Z or ‘Yutuzi’ period might have started far earlier – perhaps as far back as M, which, as we now know, saw the first indications of Mickey-taking.

  31. “Britpop Now” was a Late Show compendium of some of the makers and shakers in Britpop. It was on BBC2 nearly 20 years ago. To my slightly angsty 17 year-old eyes, the clip below was one of the best things I’d seen; watching it now, well, it has aged a bit, but it has a certain charm, and they were a pretty good tight band.

    It’s Marion – with I Stopped Dancing

  36. Metallica
    Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning & Master Of Puppets are superb slabs of metal.
    … And Justice For All was OK, but seriously let down by bad production

    The Black Album was where they tried to stretch out a bit. In the main it worked, but I can’t help feeling it is not really Metallica.
    After that, it was all very competent (if a bit predictable) but I kind of lost interest – to my ears there isn’t a lot to shout about later on (I do like covers album Garage Inc though)

  46. Motels – new wave band from LA, pretty big in Australia. Made little impression in UK two singles just outside Top 40).
    Debut album is certainly worth 40 minutes of anyones time (honest!)

  52. M is for Masterpiece, which is what The Middle East created with their last album “I Want That You Are Always Happy”, and M is also for “Months”, one of its wonderful tracks:

    • Always happy to see Malcolm – I’d be tempted to post ‘Something’s Jumping in My Shirt’, but can’t find a suitable clip. Instead, here’s ‘Double Dutch’ – another of his celebrations of musical culture.

  60. The reason I’m late to this party, is Midsummer, as mentioned by Locust above.

    On Friday morning, the kids and I clambered on to a trailer pulled by a tractor and drove deep into the forest with the local kids from Ortala Lund to cut down some small trees and pluck forest flowers to adorn the local maypole. It must be the most un-sibtle phallic symbol ever devised,

    On the way back, the kids started singing this, Ida’s Summer Song. All rather magic.

  65. I can’t find the 12″ mix of this on Youtube unfortunately, there is a great dub on the extended version if any one is interested. This shorter version is still a fine record none the less.

    • That’s a great song, @tiggerlion – so much packed into it. I’ve been listening to it over and over again this morning, and there’s so much in it that appears new each time. there are some amazing symphonic soul songs, aren’t there?

      • It’s my favourite Marvin Gaye track, beautiful, sensual and deeply bitter. All of his conflictions in one song. It’s worth buying the whole of the double album, Here My Dear, just for Is That Enough. Fortunately, the album includes other gems as well.

    • Thank you, pencil.

      Kiki, Man Ray’s muse for a while, was one hell of a woman! Voracious in her habits, lovers, alcohol, cocaine, she was constantly in fights. She was once prised from jail with a doctor’s note saying she had mental problems, although she was never formally diagnosed as having one. I guess Man Ray was lucky to stay alive when her left her for Lee Miller. Kiki lived the life of a rock star and died the death of one, collapsing like John Entwhistle at the age of 53.

  75. MASHING THE “M”
    Michael Jennings
    Man Of The Match On Wednesday (State Of Origin 2)
    Goose Of The Year ? on Friday 19th
    http://www.nrl.com/jennings-stood-down-for-one-nrl-match/tabid/10874/newsid/87275/default.aspx

    Manly Sea Eagles Get A Win – will it save their coach??
    Melbourne Storm Full Back Billy Slater out for rest of the season?
    Matidlas – go girls in your World Cup games
    Malouney signs with the Sharks for 3 years
    Mmmmmmmmmmm now done
    NOT quite now listening to Mogwai

  80. David Munrow.

    Munrow was the brilliant multi-instrumentalist, arranger, conductor, historian and broadcaster who spearheaded the revival in interest in Early Music in the UK in the late 60s/early 70s.
    When I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to meet him on a couple of occasions, as my dad was a friend of his.
    Munrow took his own life in 1976, aged just 31.
    About 9 months before, he’d recorded his masterpiece “The Art of the Netherlands”with his band, the Early Music Consort of London.

  87. How about the powerpop of Magnapop, with a bonus “M” – as it was the first track I heard by them – of the marvellous “Merry”.

    Despite some high profile fans (Michael Stipe and Bob Mould each produced albums by them, Juliana Hatfield wrote a song about guitar-heroine Ruthie Morris, Eels and R.E.M recorded covers of their songs) they never quite made it. I only saw them live once, in the entirely unsuitable surroundings of a midday support slot (along with Blur) for R.E.M in Finsbury park in 1995.

    They split up in the late nineties, and then reformed briefly for one more album in 2005 but that was the end of them.

    Or so I thought until a few weeks ago when I chanced across the fact (and I can’t remember how I did it) that they’d put out another album (“Chase Park”) in 2009 and are sporadically still gigging alongside other side projects. All of which is why they came to mind when I saw this thread.

    Anyway, have been playing the new(est) one quite a bit since grabbing it from emusic, and it’s rather fun. If you’re interested, you can grab the opening track from their site: http://www.magnapop.com/mp3/bring_it_to_me.mp3

  106. Thanks to everyone for the fantastic range and number of contributions. There really is enough for a full fortnight of enjoyment.
    ‘N’ should be along later today

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