favorite song friday: the need for speed

Pharrell's latest song, "Come Get it Bae" has joined a long tradition in modern music of making a correlation between sex and cars, or in this case, motorcycles. Good looking and fast-moving vehicles have metaphor-ed their way into some of music's greatest hits.

The Beach Boys wrote lots of songs about cars. And girls. And girls and cars.

"You wanna ride it, my motorcycle
You've got a license, but you got the right to
Gonna pop a wheelie, don't try too high too
Take it easy on the clutch, cause girl I like you"

Marc Bolan of T Rex was pretty forthright with mixing his automobile as pretty girl metaphors in "Bang a Gong" and "Jeepster."

"You're built like a car, you've got a hub cap diamond star halo
You're dirty sweet and you're my girl."

"Just like a car
You're pleasing to behold
I'll call you Jaguar
If I may be so bold ...
Girl I'm just a jeepster
For your love"

Prince took things a step further (as he is wont to do) with "Little Red Corvette."

"Believe it or not, I started to worry
I wondered if I had enough class
But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right
And you say, "Baby, have you got enough gas?", Oh yeah
Little red corvette
Baby, you're much too fast (yes, you are)
Little red corvette
You need to find a love that's gonna last"

Music and sex and cars seem to be a winning combination. These are my favorites, but there are many others:

"Mercedes Benz" - Janis Joplin
"Drive My Car"
"Slow Ride" - Foghat
"Cars" - Gary Numan
"Pink Cadillac" - Bruce Springsteen
"Little Deuce Coupe" - Beach Boys
"Mustang Sally" - Wilson Pickett
“Drive (Who’s Gonna Drive You Home?)" - The Cars
“I Can’t Drive 55" - Sammy Hagar
“I’m In Love With My Car” - Queen
"I Drove All Night" - Roy Orbison

Any great songs I've left out? Let me know.

And to finish things up, this song by Rose Royce seems to say summer to me ...

"Hey, get your car washed today
Be in our band, you don't have to pay
Come on and give us a play"

favorite song friday: "kiss" vs. "kiss"

For Mario.

A photo of a very young Prince started a discussion on Facebook which led to my needing to post once of my favorite Prince songs, "Kiss."

As much as I love Prince's rendition of his 1986 song, I also have a great deal of affection for the Art of Noise/Tom Jones cover, which was released two years later. I'll never forget when Jones played a live summer concert in the early '90s in Sheepshead Bay. My mom (who was visiting me in Brooklyn at the time), my friend Mary, and I headed down to see the show, which was of course, wonderful. We were a bit too far away from the stage to throw any underwear, but a great time was had by all.


Art Of Noise Featuring Tom Jones - Kiss

You don't have to be rich to be my girl
You don't have to be cool to rule my world
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your kiss

According to Wikipedia, Prince gave away "Kiss," and then later, when he realized its potential, grabbed it back:

"Kiss" started as a short acoustic demo, about a minute in length, with one verse and the chorus. Prince gave the song to the funk band Mazarati for their debut album. Mazarati and producer David Z drastically reworked the song, giving it its stripped-down minimalist sound. When Mazarati delivered the song to Prince, he was amazed at their work and decided to take back the song for himself. He replaced their lead vocal, added the guitar break in the chorus and edited the song to its present form. Mazarati were credited for their backing vocals, which Prince left intact. Prince added the song at the last minute to Parade.

It's one of his five number one hits ("When Doves Cry" 1984, "Kiss" 1986, "Let's Go Crazy" 1984, "Batdance" 1989, and "Cream" 1991) and also won him a Grammy.

favorite song friday: prince vs. bruno mars (and the rest of the world)

Prince, Prince Prince. He's once of those artists that I love, but ... I have to admit that sometimes he is just a bit too much. He recently released a sneak peek at his new song/video, "Breakfast Can Wait." Talk about a hit or miss. The hit part is Prince showing his sense of humor by having Dave Chappelle impersonate his tiny purple majesty on the cover art:

The song, unfortunately, was not quite so impressive. Much has been made of the video for the song being directed by 18 year-old Danielle Curiel, who also impersonates the singer. But unfortunately the rest of the video's visuals — synchronized dancing in '80s-era black spandex, a strangely sexist interaction between a couple "the morning after," — leaves more than a little bit to be desired. Plus, the song sounds a little dated and strange. Prince's falsetto sounds practically helium-enhanced near the end of the song.

Prince isn't the only one trying to recapture the magic of Prince these days. Robin Thicke tries to channel early Prince in his blatantly Prince-like "Give it 2 U". He even rips off Prince's spelling technique, which the Minneapolis musician perfected long before we all started texting. It's O.K. ... but for something fun and sexy I much prefer the real heir to Prince's throne, Prince-ier than Prince himself these days, the über-talented Bruno Mars and his latest song, "Gorilla."

All three videos are on the lame side, but the sexiness and catchiness of "Gorilla" is not to be denied. It's a great song. Check it out, Prince.

just another manic monday

Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an air-o-plane
I still couldn't make it on time




Even though I am now working from home, this song still applies. And the phrase quoted above has always had a special resonance for me, summing up the whole nine-to-five working world concept and how it just doesn't fit into how humans really want to live and work.

You can hear Prince's phrasing (he wrote the song), but this is still quintessential Bangles and eighties music. Ah, the eighties, when Prince was crazy in a good way . . . I miss that Prince.

singing rocks

At the National Museum of American History there are singing rocks. No, not rock singers, although they do have Prince's guitar. There are singing rocks, which warble folk and American musical theater tunes as you stroll the patio.

I am fascinated and repulsed by these objects, which are actually "naturalistic" speakers-made out of plastic, of course. But I can't help thinking of the myth of the Sirens, or some other suitable mythology.

I don't think I will go crashing into these rocks anytime soon, along to the soundtrack from Guys and Dolls or a classic Woody Guthrie song. But I do wonder why the museum thinks that outside space should be filled by noise, no matter how "historic."

Sometimes it would be nice to give peace and quiet a chance.

the artist formerly known as prince

Last night we were watching the American Music Awards on television. My daughter enjoyed bouncing around to the mostly insipid performances, while I struggled with having to accept that what was on display was the current state of music. Except it wasn't.

Most of the performances were lame Madonna-MTV-video-staged rip-offs. And either the sound system was completely out of wack, or most of the performers couldn't sing in tune live, from Coldplay to the Disney Jonas brats. I'm afraid I tend towards the latter, as Miley Cyrus and Beyonce sounded fine.

But when the Pussycat Dolls hit the stage all I could think of was Prince and his revolving door of babes through the years that sang or danced their way through his performances and videos. At least the Prince girls were trashy and fun. The Dolls were neither dolls nor fun. Just loud, fast and trashy.

And what ever happened to the Purple One? Well, appparently he has ditched Minneappolis for L.A. and is proseltyzing door-to-door. A recent interview with The New Yorker proves that Prince is just as strange and mysterious as always. But not necessarily in a good, crazy rock star way. The description of his "pad" versus the religiosity of his sound bytes doesn't mesh at all. I'm not sure our new president (or anyone in Washington, Democrat or Republican) would understand Prince's take on politics. Sigh.



At least we'll always have Raspberry Beret (insert you favorite tune here.) I'm not sure how he reconciles songs like Gett Off or Cream with his belief system. Of course he does have purple thrones, platform flip flops and a hot tub. God bless him, he's a dinosaur.