Light a Candle.com

Longtime online acquaintance and fellow blogger Bluejay recently started a site dedicated to showcasing his favorite songs in an effort to help his fans get through the present health crisis. The site's name is Songs for Sheltering aka Music for Uplift, Every Day. I hope you all have a chance to check it out since I suspect it will be well worth your while.

A Few of My Favorite Billy Joel Songs: Part I

Apparently Samurai Frog and Chuck Klosterman aren't the only ones who like Billy Joel. I have always liked him too -- though there have been times when my affection seemed more of a love/hate thing due to the number of times Billy Joel's latest tunes have been overplayed on the local radio stations.

Among the most obvious favorites of mine from this artist:

1. "A Matter of Trust". I sent a copy of this video to my girlfriend yesterday by text message because I not only like it enough to want to share it with her but because it also reminds me of our relationship. We have been both burned in the past by former loves and yet we both keep trying to get along and thrive without getting hung up on the past. Plus it turns out that we both like the beat of this song...



I never noticed prior to yesterday how much Billy Joel's outfit in this video seems like a parody of Bruce Springsteen's traditional concert outfit. Deliberate or unintentional? You decide.

Plus there's the whole irony of Billy's relationship with Christie Brinkley at the time this song was recorded but then it's not Billy Joel's fault he's not psychic.

2. "Tell Her About It". One of the first CDs I ever owned was Billy Joel's An Innocent Man album, which, of course, had this song on it. And this was also one of the first music videos I recorded off cable TV back in the days when music videos were still a novelty.



I have always loved this song's video (see above) but I also liked the song's message. When my youngest brother first bought me the CD this song was on, I joked that he was trying to send me a message about the girl in my Catholic Singles group on whom I had had a crush at that time. And maybe he was. That still doesn't dilute the truth of the song's message. After all, if I had never told that Catholic girl about my feelings for her, I would have regretted it far more than her actual rejection. And of course part of the reason I was able to tell that girl about my feelings despite being usually very shy around women at that time was because I used this song to psych myself up.

As for the video, that Billy Joel really gets around, doesn't he? And I just love the Rodney Dangerfield cameo at the end.

3. "Laura". I actually have a cousin named Laura. In fact, I have two cousins named Laura and they're both on my father's side of the family. And fortunately -- as far as I know -- they're nothing like the title character of this song.



I have always thought it ironic that though Billy Joel comes right out and tells us the nature of his true relationship with "Laura" halfway through the song, the lyrics for the most part are ambiguous enough that I once thought the song was about an old girlfriend of Joel's. Then I thought it was about a platonic acquaintance. I was surprised as heck to realize that it was ultimately about his mother but then I have known enough "Lauras" in my lifetime who weren't related to me to understand the many reasons I would not have equated the title character with a mother even if Billy Joel had been more explicit in his lyrics.

For what it's worth, Blue October went for a similar hat trick with their song "Hate Me" but for some reason, they didn't pull it off as well as Billy Joel did with this song. But then it's hard to be human and not identify with the obviously mixed emotions Billy Joel describes in this song.

Edited to Add:

Just when I had the whole "what does this song really mean?" question answered to my satisfaction, I came across this video.

Then again I must confess that I find this "official" answer more convincing than Mr. Joel's.

As for the lines "Laura/ Calls me/ When she needs a good fix", I'm guessing we should not take that line too literally. Billy Joel never seemed like he was that plausible a drug dealer -- even in the context of the song -- and while I suppose a more charitable interpretation would have him being Laura's Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, that does not quite ring true either. Then again that just could be my own anti-drug biases speaking since I never played those roles with any of the Lauras in my life. For that matter, I never considered my own mother to be a Laura but that's a subject for another day.

CD of the Week


I'm so glad that the 1976 Public Theatre Revival of The Threepenny Opera is finally available on CD. Of course, it's still almost impossible to buy if you don't shop online and even the usual online sites don't carry it. (Amazon.com, however, does have it on MP3.)

The play stars Raul Julia as Mac the Knife (yes, the same gent who inspired the song of the same title), Ellen Greene as Pirate Jenny, Caroline Kava as Polly Peachum and Blair Brown as Lucy Brown. The play is set in Victorian London but this version uses less euphemisms than the more well-known 1954 Broadway version. And if you ever have the opportunity to compare, for example, this CD's version of "Barbara Song" to the 1954 version, you'd understand why that's a good thing.

I used to listen to this record in college but it's been unavailable in any form save vinyl for so long that I was beginning to think that it would never be available on CD.

Gracias a Dios that I was proved wrong about that.

CD of the Week


Yes, the artwork is horrible, but the songs on "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?": Songs of the Depression are really nice to listen to. As you might guess, the High Hatters' version of "Ten Cents a Dance" is one of my favorite songs on this CD. Nor does it hurt that this CD contains Dick Robertson's surprisingly witty tribute to vocational hindsight, "If I Ever Get a Job Again." Then, of course, there's Eddie Cantor's classic mocking of Panglossian economics, "Cheer Up! Smile! Nertz! (Ballyhoo)" a song that seems almost as relevant today as it did back in 1931. Plus there's a great many songs on this CD including a version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" that has actual vocals.

It's not the easiest CD to find, but I found it to be worth the effort. After all, if we must relive the 1930s, we might as well have some decent music to listen to.

Latest Proof That We Indeed Live in a Harsh and Cruel Universe



Apparently there are no decent videos of Waitresses songs to be found on YouTube right now. However, there are several videos devoted to the various godawful cover versions that have been made of their songs -- the most obvious being the Spice Girls' cover of “Christmas Wrapping” and Katharine McPhee's recent cover of “I Know What Boys Like.” (I'm not going to link to these videos for obvious reasons.)

On the plus side, one can get a mp3 version of the Waitresses' classic LP Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? on Amazon.com. So sometimes one does get some good news to offset the bad.



If only they'd go ahead and release WTW? on CD as well. For that matter, I wouldn't mind seeing the other two Waitresses albums on CD as well. Perhaps if I'm really really really good this coming year...

Possible Responses to Joan Osborne’s Song Lyric “What If God Was One of Us”

1. What is this “If”? How do you know God wasn’t one of us?

2. What is this “One”? I happen to believe in a triform deity myself. I just don’t believe in this newfangled monotheism.

3. What is this “Us”?

What I've Been Listening to Lately



Actually I've had this album since last year. Ever since I started listening to the Dresden Dolls, I've gotten obsessed with the type of 20s and 30s music that inspired the Dresden Dolls and this is the most concise collection of such material that I've found thus far. (It didn't hurt that my father used to make my siblings and me listen to recording of 20s music when I was younger. So I'm almost genetically programmed to like the stuff.)

Anyway, I've recently become obsessed with it again. Almost as if the powers that be were trying to tell me something...

Pensamientos Acerca de Música (Thoughts About Music)

A Few of My Favorite Billy Joel Songs, Part I
CD of the Week
CD of the Week
Come to the Punk Cabaret, Old Chum
Dresden Dolls Redux
Five Reasons to Listen to the Waitresses
Gentlemen Prefer Concrete Blondes
Latest Proof That We Indeed Live in a Harsh and Cruel Universe
Possible Responses to Joan Osborne’s Song Lyric “What If God Was One of Us
So What's With All the Abba Songs, Tonio?
Sociological Irony of the Week
Song of the Week
"Those Were The Days": An Appreciation
What I've Been Listening to Lately
Why I Love Country Music

So What's with All the Abba Songs, Tonio?

Yes, I know. Abba is hardly the hippest musical group out there and they recorded more than a few songs that even I have trouble defending. But like most successful pop groups, when they're good, they're very good. And though there was a time when I liked to pretend that I never listened to this group, I feel more honest admitting my fondness for them than pretending otherwise.

Besides, the older I get, the more disgusted I get with the need to seem fashionable. All too often the current fashion has little to recommend it beyond the fact that it is the current fashion.

You don't always pick the art that speaks most to you, and it seems silly to pretend that the art that speaks to you doesn't really speak to you. Okay, maybe it seems a tad pretentious to classify Abba songs as art, but I feel silly pretending that their songs don't count as art. Or that there wasn't a time when I welcomed their presence on the radio.

It could be mere nostalgia responsible for this feeling. But I don't wax nostalgic over every musical group I heard while I was growing up, and there are many -- Van Halen, Journey, KISS -- that I would rather not hear from again.

Besides, when I listen to Abba, I just don't think of Abba. I think of all the things that went on when I was listening to Abba: my parents' divorce, my high school days, my first job, etc. And if that makes me weird, well, then I'm weird.

Anyway, if Abba's music doesn't speak to you, then it doesn't speak to you. But that doesn't mean it doesn't speak to other people apart from you. And I'm glad it does.

But then I'm biased.

Five Reasons to Listen to the Waitresses

1. "A Girl's Gotta Do." The ultimate feminist anthem of the 1980s.
2. "Bread and Butter." Originally written for the 1982 recession, it helped me get through the recession of the early 1990s and continues to inspire me today.
3. "No Guilt." That rarity of rarities: a positive breakup song. Proof that the end of a romantic relationship does not have to be "the end of the world."
4. "Quit." A humorous look at addiction.
5. "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?" In many ways, the ultimate Waitresses song. The title song of their first album and one of their best songs overall.

“Those Were The Days”: An Appreciation

“Those Were the Days” -- Mary Hopkin. Oh, geez. Those of us who were born in the early 1960s (the tail end of the baby boom) never had a chance. Not only did nostalgia for decades we had never lived through turn out to be the big trend of our teenage years (not to mention our twentysomething years, our thirtysomething years, etc.), but songs like this were embedded in our memories during childhood, making it almost impossible to enjoy our youth without wondering if we were going to turn out like the poor woman in this song.

My mother used to own an album with this song on it, and even as a child, I had a mixed reaction to this song. Was I supposed to feel sorry for the woman in this song who had apparently seen her youthful dreams slip away like so much dust and ash? Or was I supposed to feel more sorry for her friend, who at the end of the song seemed way too oblivious to realize that he was supposed to feel sad about anything?

And even allowing for the fact that the song is a remake of an old song, how odd is it that this particular version was being sung by a woman who wasn't even yet twenty when she recorded it. Was she waxing nostalgic for junior high? Grammar school? Kindergarten? The womb?

No wonder my generation was so obsessed with nostalgia. Welsh singer Mary Hopkin was already pushing the stuff upon us big time before we were even old enough to have a youth for which we could wax nostalgic.

Sociological Irony of the Week

Mi novia and I made the mistake of going to a local pool hall the other night, only to discover that the place was way more expensive than the usual pool hall and had no public restrooms. Moreover, the place had no jukebox so the only available music was an odd mixture of sexually explicit and politically incorrect hip-hop being played on the PA system -- the type of music in which almost every song uses the N-word umpteen times and sings about sexual intercourse in a way that makes Berlin's classic “Sex (I'm A)” sound like an Amy Grant song. (I usually have no problems with hip-hop but this type of hip-hop I definitely had a problem with.)

Needless to say, mi novia and I didn't stay there long. (We played one game, then left.) But I did find it funny that though the songs were all by black singers, both the manager of the place and the majority of the customers were Asian-American.

Gentlemen Prefer Concrete Blondes

I finally found a DVD of Concrete Blonde videos last week. Concrete Blonde was one of my favorite groups of the 1990s and I wasn't aware that they made that many videos, let alone released them on DVD. Yet they did -- on a little disc entitled Still in Hollywood: The Videos.

Unfortunately it doesn't have every single video they ever made and indeed, the most frustrating aspect of the DVD is the number of videos -- the one from “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song),” for example -- that are not available on this DVD. (Indeed, the only place you can see that video is on the youtube.com site.)

Moreover, most of the videos aren't exactly visually inspired. Just multiple shots of the band playing with an occasional extra to break the monotony. But the songs are still good. “Caroline” is still as haunting as it was when I first heard it back in 1990 though why they set the video for it in a strip joint is something I never quite figured out. “Someday” is good, too, and “Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man” gives lead singer Johnette Napolitano a chance to dress up in period costume.

I still would have liked to have seen a DVD release of the black-and-white video for “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song).” Or even the video for “Tomorrow, Wendy,” a song Concrete Blonde covered for Andrew Prieboy. (Unfortunately, the one video available on youtube.com is the Prieboy version, but Johnette sings backup on that one as well.)

Oh,well. I guess you can't have everything...

Song of The Week

I'm goin' down to the railroad tracks
And watch them lonesome boxcars roll.
--Rosie Flores, “Boxcars”

Okay, Joe Ely actually wrote this song but Rosie sings it so well that it might as well be her song in the same way that “Respect” is more Aretha Franklin's song than Otis Redding's.

There's something about Rosie's soft, sultry voice on this song that makes you want to say, “Hey, I sure hope there's more where this comes from.”

And, of course, it does inspire a slight interest in trains...

Dresden Dolls Redux

I wish I could say that the new Dresden Dolls album, Yes, Virginia, is as good as their first album. But alas, it's not.

It's not a bad record per se. Some songs like “Modern Moonlight” and “Sex Changes” have a nice ring to them. And the abortion song “Mandy Goes to Med School” certainly stands out as the most memorable song I've heard thus far this year. (Though whether it's memorable in a good way is another matter.)

As a whole, though, I prefer the first album to the second. As much as I like “Modern Moonlight” and other tunes on the album, they're just not as memorable as such first album tunes as “Girl Anachronism,” “Gravity” or even “Coin-Operated Boy.”

Maybe in a year or two, I'll believe differently, but for now, I don't.

I did like the recent Dresden Dolls Paradise DVD though. It's mostly composed of live performances, and those alone are pretty entertaining. However, the two bonus videos on the DVD are very well done. And the ambiguous end of the “Coin-Operated Boy” (a homage to the horror film May, perhaps?) is very good. And not just because lead singer Amanda Palmer looks so good in a corset...

Why I Love Country Music

Okay, the Dresden Dolls isn't exactly country music, but then neither is a lot of the music I listen to. And yet more and more the radio stations I turn to most are those which play country music and the CDs I'm most likely to buy are by country artists.

Author Lily Burana once explained the appeal of country music with this quote:

“I've come to love country-and-western. I used to hate it, but now between the deft storytelling and open-heartedness, I'm hooked.”

And this quote:

“I need the formula for conveying heartache that country does best. A world-weary voice, stark and plaintive against the weeping of the fiddle, a steel guitar coming in to address the grievances of the strings, and then a crescendo that brings the three together, pulsing with emotion and blood -- taste and restraint be damned.”

No doubt that's one reason I'm also a Lily Burana fan...

Come To The Punk Cabaret, Old Chum

I've been listening to the self-titled album by the Dresden Dolls a lot lately. Not exactly an album I'd recommend for family listening, but close enough to my current mood to be suitable to me. The group specializes in a brand of eclectic music that has been characterized as “punk cabaret” -- plenty of frenzied piano-playing and some sweet melodies on the most unlikely subjects.

I first got hooked on the group when I heard the song “Coin-Operated Boy” on the PA at a local record store. It was a simple novelty tune and yet more than a novelty tune. I'm tempted to call it the “Imaginary Lover” of the 21st Century because it covers similar subject matter. A girl -- who is lonely -- purchases a -- well -- a coin-operated boy. You can guess the rest of the story from there.

There was a time when I turned up my nose at this type of melodrama, but lately I've acquired a taste for it. It might not help me understand the world but it can help me tolerate it.