A wild and uneducated statistic is that 3 out of every 5 people have iPods… or some kind of a MP3 playing device. If not that, then 4 out or 7 people use some kind of a listening apparatus of some kind. How often do you get to say “apparatus” by the way? I have no hard evidence of how many people use headphones or for what, but chances are, you probably do and just want to make sure you can hear whomever do whatever they are doing.
Lately I’ve been seeing and hearing more about Dr. Dre’s disgustingly expensive headphones called Beats. They are supposedly the highest of audio production on the market hence their hefty price tag. But why oh why Dre, MD must they cost a car payment? And to be honest, I thought it was downright foolish and wondered what the big deal was. (more…)
‘Tis the season for graduating. So I found it fitting to have this song/video/spoken word piece for this post.
When I was younger and first heard this “song”, I found it kinda funny in somewhat of a sophomoric immature kinda way, to be honest. And I think a lot of my friends found it to be more on the silly side too. But we were young kids then (about 10-11 years ago), and we didn’t understand truly what was being said here. I don’t want to get into specifics about who wrote it, why… but I do want to just reflect that what’s said still rings true today. These words to live by, if you will. And I hope you do.
Call me crazy, but I started listening to this over and over again one day, almost committing it to memory. Why? For one thing, things like this sound so poetic to me, and I’m a sucker for poetry. Another thing, these are wise words that should be remembered and passed down. Lastly, I plan to write my own version of this. Maybe not necessarily Chris Rock style comedy, but something nonetheless to show that I’ve garnered some wisdom over these years that I can share with others.
And this is, in a sense, a message to a graduating class, letting them know what to expect in life. And since it’s graduating season (for college, anyway), I felt that this would be an appropriate send off. Besides all of that, I had recently heard this about a month ago and have been waiting to post a friPod about it. This seemed like an opportune time more than any, so why not?
So I’d like to say to those graduating (high school, college, business school, etc), congratulations! Wear sunscreen and live your life to the fullest. I’m more than sure many of you have many goals and dreams you’d like to accomplish and it’s my hopes, dreams and prayers that you do indoob succeed. Perhaps next year around this time I will have Oh, the Places You’ll Go committed to memory instead, but my message would remain the same. Namaste!
I had the idea to do a friPod post regarding Spring/Summer playlists since these past few days have been sunny, warm and just all kinds of beautiful outside. But I know for me, it takes a good while to compose a playlist of my own doing without the assistance of iTunes’ Genius feature, which, I’ll admit, is a nice feature they’ve added. I was listening to a list created a few months ago, based from the song “Mo Money, Mo Problems.” For the most part, it captured the sunny and springy mood I was in, especially while driving, but I had a few exceptions I needed to skip, so the list wasn’t perfect. I considered posting that for today’s post, but I decided against it due to the imperfections.
Instead, I decided to post the top listened to artists iSaac has been playing. Technically, it’s a list of the top songs that my iTunes library has been playing. So it’s not correct to say it’s the top artists played since the list would probably look a lot different and include artists that I regularly have on heavy rotation. But the list of artists surprised me nonetheless.
The artists and their songs are as follows and are in the order of artists and their songs… You’ll get the point.
Sam Cooke[(1.)"Nearer To Thee (Live)", (13.)"Yeah Man", (19.)"Bring It on Home to Me (Live)"] (C’mon son, no contest.)
Curtis Mayfield[(2.) "P.S. I Love You"] (It’s no secret I love this song and this artist and he would probably make the list regardless.)
Parliament[(3.) "Flash Light"] (This song tends to find its way on a lot of my playlists as well as be one of my favorite songs. This is the only song I have from this group.)
Kanye West[(4.) "Champion"] (Another song that’s on a number of other playlists as well as a “go-to” song when I’m feeling like a champion. But I do listen to a lot of his other songs a lot of the time.)
Fall Out Boy[(5.) "America's Suitehearts", (8.) "She's My Winona", (9.) "Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet", (14.) "Coffee's for Closers", (16.) "The (Shipped) Gold Standard", (17.) "Tiffany Blews", (18.) "The Carpal Tunnel of Love", (20.) "Bang the Doldrums", (24.) "Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes"] (Apparently I listen to a lot of this band.)
Daft Punk[(6.) "Digital Love", (10.) "Aerodynamic", (11.) "One More Time", (12.) "Face to Face", (15.) "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", (22.) "Too Long / Steam Machine"] (I actually wasn’t aware of how often I do listen to them, but I usually listen a lot when I’m working or driving.)
Robin Thicke[(7.) "Magic"] (This song made the playlist because not only is it another song on many playlists, but I let it play on repeat for about an hour or so once.)
Justice[(21.) "D.A.N.C.E."] (I listen to their album just as often as I do Daft Punk also while at work or in the car.)
Tim Myers[(24.) "Brand New Day"] (Really? I listened to this song that many times that it’s the 24th most played song? Wow. I like the song but this is a bit much.)
Stevie Wonder[(25.) "I'm Wondering"] (As an artist, I know I listen to him a lot more, but I know this song is on a few playlists as well.)
After reviewing the list, I can already count off a number of artists that should be on this list. As in, “the top 25 Played Artists.” I’m sure Alicia Keys, The Roots, John Legend, Joss Stone, Deitrick Haddon, James Brown, Prince, Michael Jackson and Jay Z would more than likely make the list. Maybe not in that order, but who knows? In any event, we’ll see how this list changes, if it does change, around this time next year.
Do you know how difficult it was to track down this song on YouTube compared to the version iSaac and I have? It was quite a search, let me tell you.
I have no problem showing you clips or scenes of this lovely and highly acclaimed classic Casablanca. In fact, I would. The movie is a #1 for so many for a reason. But it’s the song I’m trying to showcase and I would rather play a complete song than a complete scene that has an incomplete song, ya dig?
So, due to the holidays and it being Valentine’s Day and all, I thought I’d pick this classic love song. Last year, I picked a song I just loved, not because it seemed anti-Valentine, but also because it was just awesome. This year, I’m still in the same cynical-feeling boat, but I have a positive outlook on things. And I know as time goes by, things will change. I do have memories of better times, fun times, and times that actually involved this movie. And even if things are different next year, considering I can relate so well to those singletons out there, I can still support the anit-VDay movement.
Besides, if you are with the person you love, isn’t everyday supposed to be Valentine’s Day? Just a thought.
Furthermore, it’s also Chinese New Year’s… so there’s that.
Everyone has their opinions on February the 14th: whether you hate it for being single, love it because you’re not, or don’t care regardless… love and romance will always be around 365, and so will this movie and it’s classic song.
Oh yeah, and a lot of Warner Bros. movies play the first few notes when it’s shiny shield comes flying out of the clouds before the movie starts.
In all honesty, I’m not sure I had an idea of what today’s friPod iPick would’ve been. That is, until last Friday night when practically the whole world watched the telethon Hope For Haiti Now. Okay, okay… so maybe the whole world didn’t tune in. I know quite a few people who managed to find something else to watch, or weren’t even home to watch it or care. But kudos to those who did watch, and extra kudos to those who donated to the sum of somewhere around $60 million or more. Indeed, the Haitians are in desperate need, and besides our prayers, the next best thing we regular citizens can give is money. Trust me, this past week I’ve been tearing up the interwebs looking for other charities or donation centers that would accept other things like clothes, food and water. I found a few local places, but for the most part, cash-money is by far the easiest and most effective way to help.
Which brings me back to the telethon. To those who watched it, you saw a who’s who of celebrities either performing, hosting, or taking phone calls. For the record, I tried calling in about 30 times. Busy signal each time. I gave in and texted $10. Had I gotten through, I would’ve donated $20 or more. But it’s okay, because by Monday I had given another $10 by way of a monetary donation collection I set up at my church, and by buying the Hope For Haiti Now album on iTunes. Rather than select the few songs I liked, I decided to get the entire album. It’s only $8 for 20 songs. I like a bargain.
I heard a few songs I really enjoyed that night, from Wyclef showing his Haitian pride, to my favorite soul singer John Legend; to Jennifer Hudson belting out my favorite Beatles song “Let It Be” (this is now my favorite version of this song). I missed the first half hour, and a few songs in-between while I was trying to get through to a celebrity or order a pizza. But probably the highlight of the night, and what’s currently topping the iTunes’ chart is a song I’ve only heard once (or twice) in my lifetime called “Hallelujah.”
The first time I heard a piece of this song is from a Fall Out Boy song “Hum Hallelujah.” The real first time I heard this song was from the movie Watchmen. In fact, I thought it was rather humorous for this song to be playing during the scene it was playing in (Nite Owl and Silk Spectre got a little hot under their costumes after an intense rescue mission). In the theater, you heard chuckles from the entire audience because it just seemed like an odd song to play during a sex scene. The director said it was intentional and meant to play on irony, and I didn’t realize why at the time. Even then, the song itself had interested me, but I never followed up to get more info about it. Not until I heard Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris sing it.
I don’t want to give the whole history of this song, but it’s been around for almost 30 years and has been covered by a number of people. Each generation has its favorite rendition. I agree that Jeff Buckley does an excellent job as well, and may even be the standard go-to version. Leonard Cohen wrote and sang the original. But I think 2010 might belong to JT and his friend. Truly a beautiful melody that has iSaac and I stuck on the replay button. It’s hard to classify this as a gospel song, which I don’t think it was intended to be… but it does allude to a few Bible stories. On a personal level, the lyrics aren’t entirely important to me as much as the music itself. But like most songs, there’s a story and meaning behind it. And sometimes, just the context of when and where a song is sung can influence the mood and emotion behind the melody. In this case, it’s passion for helping those in Haiti.
I’ve been away awhile, and since I’ve been gone I’ve collected quite a lot of music. So I’ll pick something from the tops of the charts a la Gaga. Like the people over at Entertainment Weekly, I had to watch this video numerous times. First, figuring out what was going on… then because it was so visually stimulating… then I started liking the song… or the video… I don’t know which came first but before I knew it, by the end of the week, the video was on my iPod.
I’m not going to lie. I enjoy seeing scantily clad women from time to time dancing to some good hypnotic music. I’m a guy who loves women in general. The only thing I did not like in this video was the hideous grotesque reptilian outfit Gaga wears midway through the video. Kudos and accolades for her eccentric and original styles, but that green alien look is off-putting and sets off a gag reflex. But hey, she’s wearing it, not me. I just look away and wait patiently for the “bedroom scene.” Honestly, I love the “diamond scene” because of that Matrix-esque vide it has… even though it isn’t like that at all (trick photography). I also think she looks the most beautiful in the close-up scenes when she’s crying.
And in case you were wondering if this video has a point or if there’s a story and you are missing it, from what I gather, the Lady was kidnapped, kinda drugged and then forced to be sold as a pleasure slave of sorts. The Lady has other plans by the end of the video and it’s really too bad… for the guy that bought her. As for the song’s meaning: basically she wants all your love, all the good things about you, and the bad things about you, even if it’s really bad, she still wants it. So you better give it or you might end up like the dude that bought her.
I lied once again. Not that anyone would know what I was lying about, but I already had a predetermined friPod pick for today, and I’m changing my mind again. I just want the record to show, that if I had money to burn, not only would I raid a grocery store and probably Best Buy, but I’d be a total iTunes junkie.
With that said, let me introduce, for probably the first time, a Sam Cooke song. Amazingly, I don’t really speak of him that often or choose many of his songs to my pick for the week, but this particular song struck me in such a way that I had to share it! And I can be the first to tell you, even though I’m one of his biggest fans, I know I haven’t heard every song he’s ever done. I personally think that’s what makes being a fan of a late legend pretty cool because there are strong possibilities you find a lost treasure like that.
Today’s iPick would sorta be considered two songs, and I’ll explain why. The song is called “Yeah Man.” Simple enough, right? So are the lyrics to the chorus. It’s just that, “yeah man.” Don’t be fooled by the ballads and love songs Mr. Cooke has provided in his career. He definitely loves to party. If you are Cooke fan, you already know because his list of love songs probably matches the list of party songs. And all the live performances I’ve heard sound like a good time indeed. (Incidentally, “Good Times” and “We’re Having a Party” are a few favorites of mine.) And it certainly sounds like a party is going on while “Yeah Man” was recorded. I wouldn’t be surprised. He talks to “the party-goers” like they are there, or he is with them… so you know it’s meant to be performed live, or at least played at dance parties. Unfortunately, I can’t find a recording online, but here is a really good live cover performing the song the way it’s meant to. Almost modernized too. And with the actual dance moves of the 60′s with moves from today. Trust me, I was skeptical when it first started playing, but I’m impressed. I don’t think I could do better as much as I love to sing this song in my car.
Awesome? I think so. I would definitely say he did the song justice. He had the passion, the dance moves, and importantly- the soul. And his dancing buddy certainly helped a lot too. I wasn’t really sure how the Watusi was done even though I’ve heard it in so many songs. The same goes for the Mashed Potato, which is another song I like.
But if the song sounds familiar, you probably heard what was a big hit in the later 60′s by Arthur Conley, Jr, “Sweet Soul Music.” A very soulful updated version of “Yeah Man” that pays homage to soul music and many soul artists at the time. My only disagreement with the song is that Sam Cooke doesn’t get a shout out, but I’m willing to let it go since Otis Redding (Cooke’s protege, if you will) was involved in the rewriting of this song with Conley. I actually heard this song before “Yeah Man” so I’m really used to hearing this version with the louder instruments. I probably like “Yeah Man” an ounce more though. I’ll let you judge for yourself. I found this recording, apparently he’s performing, but I think he’s just lip-synching. It doesn’t matter, it’s still a great song and there are a few live versions of him performing the song.
I have plans of my own with this song. My original plan was to rewrite it so I could include Sam Cooke as well as other great soulful talents like Al Green, Areatha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Luther VanDross, just to name a few. Then after I heard “Yeah Man”, I considered a gospel version of this song, meant to be performed during a church service to get people moving and out of their seats. I don’t know about you, but my church loves to party, and this would be the perfect song for that. As I told my mother, whom agrees with me, the only bad thing about these songs is that they are too short. Thank God for the repeat button, and I apologize to anyone who’s within earshot that hears the same song for an hour.
I lied a little bit. This wasn’t going to be today’s friDay friPod pick. I think I’ll save it for next week so I can analyze it a little more and give you a real breakdown of what I think about that pick.
Anyway, today’s pick is what we can consider a throwback track. At the time, it was fresh, it was hot, and all about the money. It was Bad Boy. And they don’t stop. And the music video was nothing to sneeze at either. It’s still one of my favorite videos and songs of all time. I can’t help that I’m a sucker for colorful entertainment with a catchy party song. I would embed the video here, but I don’t want to get in trouble so just follow the link to YouTube before/after/while you read this.
But let’s talk about the song first. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure a good majority of the kids I grew up with could probably sing the entire song today as soon as they heard the very first second of the intro. I know this because back when it was new and it played in class, everyone sang/rapped along. Especially when it came to Biggie’s verse. For the record, just to get it out there, the song sampled is Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” which is a very hot song on it’s own right. Here, it is covered by Kelly Price.
The title pretty much states what the song is about, or supposedly what it’s about. “The more money you make, the more problems you get.” To be honest, I never looked too deep into the lyrics because I was just enjoying the music and the beats. However I almost want to agree with Puff, er, um, Diddy that “ten years from now [they'll] still be on top” is kinda true. The song came out in ’97 and here it is ’09. Diddy and Biggie are certainly not forgotten. Notorious is now on DVD and Puff is still a big player in music and TV. But you’d think a song that is 12 years old might be $0.99 on iTunes but NO! That’s okay, I found one anyway.
But back to the video… I didn’t buy it for iSaac to play… yet. But it’s certainly one I’d collect. The song is definitely one to blast at a party (like one I recently attended, and it brought back so many memories that we played it twice). But the video… I never really understood the sets… with the dancers in white… and all the explosions behind them (and Puff and Mase). And the shiny suits. But do you really need a reason for the sake of art? I much prefer videos of this nature than the rump-shaking, look-at-my-rented-car and flashy jewelry videos that followed. And yeah, a few of those are classics too.
But there’s one dude in this video that always stands out to me. He can be spotted at 4:14 and 4:42 with the corn rows. It’s just something about the look on his face and the way he is dancing. I won’t lie, I’m sure I’d be doing something just as foolish if not worse… but not in front of recording cameras. I’m still stuck on the now infamous “dance” moves from both Puff and Mase, way before the Harlem Shake days. Regardless, it’s still a classic and I love every minute of it including the little golf part in the beginning.
My apologies again for not having this post last friDay while it was still relevant. But here it is! This is actually like Part II to a couple weeks ago when iPicked Prince’s LOtUSFLOW3R. And let me put it this way… if that album represented Prince’s day, MPLSoUND represents his night.
And I mean that in a good way. I will also explain how I came to this conclusion. A good number of the songs on this album seem to be about dancing at night, or just going out in general. Especially in the first song. I won’t go into detail, you just have to hear it. And I recommend it, it’s a good one. “(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me.” But I’m saving the songs I really like for last to talk about.
This sound, which apparently is the Minneapolis sound (hence the name of the album, if you didn’t catch it) is a funky R&B style. It gives me flashbacks of, I don’t know, the Purple Rain soundtrack or just some other run-of-the-mill 90′s R&B music… BUT it’s got a certain flair that sets it apart. Mostly that flair is Prince doing his musical genius thing that I respect so much. I can’t help but excuse him for being as strange as people make him out to be. Anyway, the sound definitely differs from LOtUSFLOW3R, and that’s not a bad thing. However, it took me a little while to start listening to it, and then to start liking it.
I can wait no longer. There are some good songs on here but I have a favorite that I know iSaac has played over 50 times by now. Although for the past week we took a break to make room for a new artist… (new to me and iSaac, but more on that next week.)
I have a love/hate relationship with the song “Chocolate Box” which is odd, a little catchy, but I’ll admit I do skip it 50% of the time. The first few songs are “rump shakers” designed to make you dance and have a good time. He slows it down, which again, Prince is very good at doing love songs. These aren’t necessarily sexual either, just romantic. I believe Prince is still doing his clean image, so it’s safe for the kiddies… which I imagine would groan regardless. Then there’s “Valentina” which I hear is dedicated to Salma Hayek’s daughter… yet he seems to talk about Hayek a lot. I don’t blame him. She’s hot. He goes back into a slow song before bringing the uptempo back to talk to the people about music and the music industry.
I loved the song “No More Candy 4 U” because of the title, then the chorus, then the message, then just the song itself. I also like it because my best friend loves candy, and I’m hoping the message gets through… I jest. Another song I love is called “Here.” A great slow jam that too me a little while to figure out, but I couldn’t stop playing it once it got it’s hooks in me. What confused me about this song is he is telling this girl that he doesn’t want her “here” and the reason why is because he loves her so much that he’ll cry. Eventually, by the end of the song, he pleads that he wants her “here” and I dunno, the song is just awesome. The man is a great poet, and I’ve said this before with “4ever.” he even does a little “breakdown” moment where he speaks, like the old school love songs used to. Last and probably the most favorite is a song called “Dance 4 Me.” I’ll admit, this is another weird one that I didn’t like at first, but now I can’t stop listening to it. In fact, I want to write a song like it. I can see where Andre 3000 gets his inspiration from. Anyway, this song deserves it’s own friPod. Simple yet cool lyrics, great beat, I love the instruments… I can see Morris Day and The Time dancing in the background to this song. Unfortunately, I can’t locate this song online, so you’ll have to take my word for it. (Or just buy it.)
I’ve been friPodding the Purple One for almost two weeks now. But it’s necessary since his latest album is actually a double (or triple) album. (Triple because of a new artistling he’s taking care of.) And wouldn’t you know it, my DVD/CD drive has been dead for the past few months, so anytime I had acquired music, I either bought it directly from iTunes or Amazon MP3, or somehow had it transferred to my computer one way or another… which is time consuming and a bit annoying for someone like me.
All of that doesn’t matter now, I have a nice new external drive that does everything that I need it to do. Woot!
So onto what today’s iPick is: I decided to talk about the first album by the name of LOtUSFLOW3R(this is how iSaac reads it, so that’s how I’m spelling it).
I’m not sure where to begin. I started with track 1, which is an intro more or less. This is one of those albums that I believe is built to be listened to beginning to end without stopping. You know, when songs fade into either other or its not exactly easy to distinguish when one song ends and the next begins. This is bittersweet. Especially if I get used to listening to an album beginning to end. But sometimes I only like certain songs, and if they are together, I want to hear them together which means no shuffle or else I am no happy! But that’s my own problem.
Since we are only dealing with this one album, I need to talk about my favorite songs. The first of which almost and maybe still might get it’s own post. It’s the first song that really caught my attention and started getting heavy rotation (both on the CD itself and now when iSaac plays it). This song is called “4Ever” and it’s a great example of the musical genius that is Prince. Why do I say that? It’s just a really beautifully written and composed song! From the instruments involved to the lyrics. I had to go look them up because I wasn’t sure on one line, and then I got stuck when I found out what he was saying: A thousand tomorrows is better than one day… which is found in the latter part of the song… but the song is about the singer wanting forever to love this girl. Yeah, I think it needs its own post so I can post the actual lyrics. Take a listen. (Take note, the lyrics on that link in the video aren’t complete… so just listen, don’t read.)
Some more songs to take note of that I liked are “Crimson and Clover”, “Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful”, and “77 Beverly Park” which is just a beautiful instrumental. There’s so much to this album that the more I listen to it, the more I find. It’s got romance, political, inspirational… and a little weirdness. Preferably the last song on the album. I’m not sure what it’s about. Honestly, I don’t know what half of these songs may be reallyabout. And I’m not sure if Prince would be the type of person to give a backstory on a song if there is even a backstory to give. But even if there isn’t one, the song still has a brand of awesomeness that can’t be denied.
A wild and uneducated statistic is that 3 out of every 5 people have iPods… or some kind of a MP3 playing device. If not that, then 4 out or 7 people use some kind of a listening apparatus of some kind. How often do you get to say “apparatus” by the way? I have no hard evidence of how many people use headphones or for what, but chances are, you probably do and just want to make sure you can hear whomever do whatever they are doing.
