CMC - Volume 17: Colors

CMC

VOLUME

17

The first in what I may call my ‘simple themes’ collection. Basically all ten songs linked by a very common thread, in this case by having a color in their title. There’s really not much more too it than that, other than arranging the songs into an order that seems to flow. Whether I succeeded at that I’ll leave it to my reviewers to expound.

As with most collections from me this one remained one of several possible options right up to the last minute and almost wasn’t the choice if I could have gotten the graphics where I wanted them on a different collection. And this is completely different than a collection I hinted at with Dan via e-mail a week or two ago. I just can’t commit until I absolutely have to.

So onto the songs.

Blue Caravan
Vienna Teng
Dreaming Through the Noise – 2006

This song captivated me from the first listen and I bought the album on the strength of that captivation without hearing another song. I was rewarded by a thoroughly excellent album including some hauntingly beautiful songs and some very clever ones, all arranged and produced immaculately. Subsequent to me buying the album, a song called Whatever You Want got some airplay. It’s the story of a woman who after sacrificing her identity to her husband’s soulless corporate advancement decides she’s had enough and burns their house down. It’s pretty clever in its execution.

This is a very simple beautiful song. Members of the CMC diaspora might confuse some of her singing with that of a man, though I doubt it will be as confusing as Sam Phillips was in my earlier collection. At least I hope not. I also hope she’s not singing about a blue Dodge Caravan. That would be really disappointing.

No, the moodiness of this song makes me feel like she’s talking about some lonely desert caravan, traveling by night through vast stretches of empty space under the soft glow of the moon. At the end of that journey she hopes to find a long lost love.

Musically, everything is soft. Soft piano, soft strings, soft vocals; all very much enhancing the mood of the song.

Blue blue caravan
Winding down to the valley of lights
My true love is a man
Who would hold me for ten thousand nights
In the wild wild wailing of wind
He's a house 'neath a soft yellow moon.
So blue blue caravan
Won't you carry me down to him soon

Blue blue caravan
Won't you drive away all of these tears
For my true love is a man
That I haven't seen in years
He said, "Go where you have to

For I belong to you until my dying day."
So like a fool, blue caravan
I believed him and I walked away.

Oh my blue blue caravan
The highway is my great wall
For my true love is a man
Who never existed at all
Oh he was a beautiful fiction
I invented to keep out the cold
But now, my blue blue caravan
I can feel my heart growing Cold
Oh my blue blue caravan
I can feel my heart growing Cold

The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – 2005

This band may be the most successful unsigned band ever. This album was sold entirely by word of mouth – tens or hundreds of thousands of copies. They have since been signed by a label and just recently released the follow up to this album. I’ve only heard one song from their new album, and it was good.

CYHSY has a very strong early Talking Heads vibe to me, particularly based on the lead singer’s voice, but also for the drumming and general feel. Their sound is a little more full than early Talking Heads, which was extraordinarily spare, but still, there’s a connection there.

I’m a big fan of the drumming in this one. In addition to the relentless bass drum part there are a number of really great little high-hat fills.

Once - The dogs have quit their barking
"Son," - my neighbor said to me.
"Know the emptiness of talking blue
the same old sheep."
Run - I'll do no more this walking
Haunted by a past I just can't see
Anymore
Anymore

But let me tell you I have never planned
To let go of the hand that has been
Clinging by its thick country skin
To my yellow country teeth

Far - Far away from West Virginia
I - Will try on New York City
Explaining that the sky holds the
Wind the sun rushes in and a child
With a shotgun can shoot down
Honeybees that sting
BUT THIS BOY COULD USE A LITTLE STING!

Who - Will get me to a party?
Who - Do I have yet to meet?
You - You look a bit like coffee
And you taste a bit like me
How - Can I keep me from moving?
Now - I need a change of scenery
Just listen to me I won't pretend to
Understand the movement of the wind
Or the waves out in the ocean or how
Like the hours I change softly slowly
Plainly blindly oh me oh my!

Red Oyster Cult
Guster
Keep it Together – 2003

Guster is probably my favorite local band. This is far from my favorite song of theirs – mostly it fit the theme – but it does display some of their trademarks. Good harmonies, good drumming, and interesting lyrics are found throughout their catalog.

The first album of theirs that I heard anything from was called What You Wish For and had a number of songs that got radio play, at least out here, including Barrel of a Gun and Fa Fa Fa. That album featured all hand percussion – mostly bongos – and was universally excellent. This song features some of those bongos in the instrumental bit at the end and scattered here and there throughout.

Doesn't it bring you down
So many lights and sounds
Call your mom on the telephone
Tell her you're coming home
Tell her there's not a chance
You're ever going to change the world
If you want to be free, take a sip of this tea
Join the red oyster cult
If you drink the whole cup, you will never grow up
You will never grow old
Remember when you were 14
You'd paint every picture so green
Call your mom on the telephone
Tell her your muse is gone
Tell her there's not a chance
You're ever going to change the world
Just a few drops away, you're never gunna change the world
If you want to be free, take a sip of this tea
Join the red oyster cult
If you drink the whole cup, you will never grow up
You will never grow old
Call your mom on the telephone
Tell her you're coming home
Tell her there's not a chance you're ever going to change the world
Just a few drops away
You'll never have to change

Obviously this a nod to that 70’s rock band Blue Oyster Cult with a perhaps more modern sense that rock and roll isn’t going to change the world. Cynical, if you read to far into that, but as Guster keeps putting out albums there must be some sense of hope in the act of making music for them.

Pink Triangle
Weezer
Pinkerton – 1996

Weezer is nothing if not a fun band. They have remained steadfastly irreverent throughout their career from The Sweater Song on. I don’t know that they do many things musically that really stand out, they’re solid. They are all about clever lyrics, and this song fits that mold quite well. I like the ‘but married in my mind’s no good’ line particularly.

When I'm stable long enough
I start to look around for love
See a sweet in floral prints
My mind begins the arrangements
But when I start to feel that pull
Turns out I just pulled myself
She would never go with me
Were I the last girl on earth

I'm dumb, she's a lesbian
I thought I had found the one
We were good as married in my mind
But married in my mind's no good
Pink triangle on her sleeve
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth

Might have smoked a few in my time
But never thought it was a crime
Knew the day would surely come
When I'd chill and settle down
When I think I've found a good old-fashioned girl
Then she put me in my place
If everyone's a little queer
Can't she be a little straight?

I'm dumb, she's a lesbian
I thought I had found the one
We were good as married in my mind
But married in my mind's no good
Pink triangle on her sleeve
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth

I'm dumb, she's a lesbian
I thought I had found the one
We were good as married in my mind
But married in my mind's no good
Pink triangle on her sleeve
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth

I'm dumb, she's a lesbian
I thought I had found the one
We were good as married in my mind
But married in my mind's no good
Pink triangle on her sleeve
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth
Let me know the truth

Silver
Pixies
Doolittle – 1989

Two months in a row with the Pixies. Crazy. This song isn’t quite as ‘beautiful’ as Havalina, but it is similarly spare in its execution. This song sits on an album with what ‘hits’ the Pixies had, namely Here Comes Your Man and Debaser. HCYM is the only one that I ever hear on the radio. The whole album is good and worth a listen. This song feels like it should have been the closing track, but they squeezed in a slightly more up-beat track after it.

Like Havalina, this song has a strong western feel. Silver particularly feels like it could have been in one of the spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood. It has a dry, dusty, salon door swinging, tumbleweed tumbling feel to me.

in this land of strangers
there are dangers
there are sorrows
i can't see this lady
it is shady
i am leaving tomorrow
tomorrow
tomorrow

even there's a reason
it's silver
it's gone
in this land of strangers
there are dangers
there are sorrows
sorrows
sorrows
sorrows

White Girl
Soul Coughing
Irresistible Bliss – 1996

At the intersection of jazz, punk and pop there was Soul Coughing. They were almost a spoken word trio if it weren’t for an infectious pop sensibility. This track is more spoken word than some of their songs though it has all the elements that make up virtually all their songs. Building on a foundation of upright bass and excellent drumming, decorated with some very quirky samples, loops and random noises, and then infiltrated by some very strange lyrics, often repeated as if they were more percussion than anything, a Soul Coughing song is created.

This comes from their second album. Their first, Ruby Vroom, is superior in many ways though my perception of it is colored by a very fun road trip I took with some college friend when it was played repeatedly. As we’ve learned repeatedly from our clogging friend, experience often cements our opinions of songs to the point of irrationality.

White Girl,
Market at Van Ness,
Heels to drag,
Discombobulated.
Air all soft around,
Hear the man singing,
Inclines and wires,
Telegraph Avenue.

Look away and she's eastbound, out of sight.

Dropped here,
By the hand of the Astronaut,
Builder of the pyramids,
The man from outer space.
Innocent farmgirl,
Raised by the aliens,
Out in Northridge,
Out in the larger world.

Look away and she's eastbound, out of sight.

The only song I can think of that makes ‘discombobulated’ work into the lyrics.

Gold to Me
Ben Harper
Fight for Your Mind – 1995

Ben Harper puts out solid slightly bluesy, rock and roll records. He usually manages some radio airplay. This one of those solid songs with some interesting guitar parts and some good lyrics.

You look like gold to me, and I'm not too blind to see.
Oh, you look like gold.
Said, you look like gold.

And you make me want to sing with all the joy you bring.
Oh, you look like gold.
Oh, you look like gold.

Like the rays down from the sun when a new day has just begun.
You look like gold.
You look like gold.

And now, look here 'cause,
I've been fooled before,
But now I know,
I've made the mistake in the past,
But now, now I know the difference from gold,
from gold and brass.

It's not the kind of gold that you wear but the kind that can feel my care.
Oh, hey, you look like gold.
Oh, now you look like gold.

Some shine when the day is new but they fade when the day is through.

But not you, you look like gold.
I said, you look like gold

Oh but, but I've been wrong before,
But now I know I've made the mistake in the past,
But now, but now, I know,
Now I know, now I know,
Now I know the difference from gold and brass.

You look like gold to me, and now I'm,
I'm down on a bended knee.
Oh, you look like gold.
Oh, you look like gold.

And I just, I just want you to know,
To me you mean so, so, so much more than all the gold.

Oh, you look like gold.
Oh, you shine like gold.
Said, you look like gold.

Green Arrow
Yo La Tengo
I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One – 1997

CMC pays off for YLT as Volume 16 finally gets me to buy a YLT album. More are likely to follow.

As a bonus to just meeting the theme criteria, this song puts me in the mood for warm summer nights. The nature sounds and the languorous music really make me want to lay on the grass and look up at the stars. And as we’re having another exquisitely crappy spring, I am ready for summer all the more.

Orange Colored Sky
Nat King Cole
The Unforgettable Nat King Cole – 1992 (originally recorded in 1950)

This song appeals to the part of me that grew up in household that watched a lot of Broadway musicals from the era that produced things like Oklahoma and Guys and Dolls. I’m a bit of a sucker for those big swing orchestra arrangements especially when done well. And what can I say about NKC’s voice. It’s smooth and used to remarkable effect.

This song, unlike lots from that era, really uses the band to great effect, and was probably written that way. All of the ‘sound effects’ really add to the punch of this very fun song. Throw in NKC singing some rapid-fire and clever lyrics and you’ve got a winner.

I was walking along, minding my business
When out of an orange-colored sky
Flash! bam! alakazam!
Wonderful you came by

I was humming a tune, drinking in sunshine
When out of that orange-colored view
Wham! bam! alakazam!
I got a look at you

One look and I yelled timber
Watch out for flying glass
cause the ceiling fell and the bottom fell out
I went into a spin and I started to shout,
Ive been hit, this is it, this is it!

I was walking along minding my business
When love came and hit me in the eye
Flash! bam! alakazam!
Out of an orange-colored sky.

Olive
Ken Nordine
Colors – 1995

This is likely the inspiration for this collection as it comes from an album devoted entirely to songs about colors. Ken Nordine has a program on NPR (in some areas) that I’ve never heard. It’s called Word Jazz and as far as I know involves him doing a spoken word thing over the music of a jazz combo. Reading now on Wikipedia I find that he started doing this in 1957. He apparently did vocal coaching for Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

Oddly, I couldn’t track down the lyrics to this (and am too lazy to transcribe them).

I’ve always like the ‘sure does’ for its inflection.

Hopefully Volume 17 will make your life a bit more colorful.