Tonight thank God...

I've known this song since I was a little boy. Always on my list of top Christmas tunes. And there was a line in the song - one sentence, nothing more - that hit me very, very hard. Being much younger myself I didn't know who sang the song, I didn't know who sang that particular line at the time. Now I know. But even then I did know it was something special, something big, something emocional.

...Tonight thank God it's them instead of you.

Now this singer is one of my favourites, one of the biggest rock stars of all times. It doesn't matter. Just listen to these guys, listen to that line. And think a little about it all. Thank God.

All the best to you
Tol

Well, it got me!



And yes, The Beatles are finally available on iTunes! Apple beware, your servers may go down...

BDI premiere!

So, here we go, any opinions? Hope you like rock 'n' roll!

Beady Eye's debut song is to download HERE.

Beady Eye track for download and Pulp reunion!

What a day! Tomorrow (Wednesday) we're gonna finally get the debut track from Beady Eye. Check the exact news on Beady Eye's website.

And what is more. For this have I not been prepared. Legendary british group Pulp is going to reform for the festival gigs in Spain and Great Britain. You can read more on Live4Ever.

Lord, I'm excited, and you?

BDI

There it is! The excitement on the biggest Oasis forum on the web (Live4ever Oasis Forum) could tell you that - the news about new Liam Gallagher's project are up!

Check their webpage HERE. It is really well done. And what do you think of the cover of the first single, announced to be released on 22nd November (not officially though)? Any reminscences from the past?

Beady Eye is the band which retains all former Oasis mateys but one, and you know who is that exception. OK now: will Liam succeed without Noel? The art of songwriting is something not very common these days I dare to say. Noel might not be in top form he was in the 90s, but still the latest record he made with Oasis showed what his contribution meant for Oasis. For me at least. The first half of the record was mainly written by Noel. And guess what... when I listen to the record for most cases I stop listening after 7 first tracks... the last four being written by either Liam, Gem or Andy. And it's not intentional, really.

Not much to say. Just a very special live forever for all those, who are gone. Thank you

Because singing is a prayer.

Yet another brick in the wall of wonder (Art of borrowing #3)

A friend of mine inspired me to write the 3rd part of the neverending story of musical similarities. She said:

hey, don't you think that Richard Ashcroft's song "Break the Nigh With Colour" has the similar verse vocal melody to that of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Greenday?

I've been listening to Richard Ashcroft (and his band, The Verve) maniacally whole summer. I didn't spot the similarity then, but now I see it and I'm loving the moment! Vocal melody, especially the first 3 or 4 notes from each song are almost the same. Then both songs go in two different directions, good for them.

This reminded me of yet another discovery.

The Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs compiled by Rolling Stone

I haven't been around for some time. I've got many records to review and hopefully I will be done with the reviews in the nearest time. Also have I an honour to welcome my friend Nir as the second author on this site =)

But for now: I've been hit by the phenomenon of The Beatles once again. Rolling Stone issued a special collector's edition of the magazine covering the work of Fab Four. Nothing that surprising apart from the fact that they made a list of 100 hundred best songs of John, Paul, George and Ringo. ONE HUNDRED. Do you know another band, that you can make a compilation like that? Of 100 songs? Not many bands reached even the number of 100 songs written in their whole career... and Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr have written and recorded above 200 original tunes in 7 years' time.

OK, I'm the biggest Beatles' fan around but tell me, isn't that just pure magic?

You can see the peak of the list here -> 10 best Beatles' songs by Rolling Stone

And for now I leave you with my latest discovery, Joe Strummer's solo stuff. It's arguably better than his work with The Clash, what do you think?

Music Is!

Just an impression from the great Richard Ashcroft, one of the finest songwriters of the past 20 years. Take care



Ah, and Arcade Fire is number 1 now in both US and the UK. There is faith =)

Art of borrowing (no 2)

For today I've got an obvious example of borrowing a musical motiff from another song. Although maybe not all of the listeners have noticed the similarity at the time, I'm sure David Guetta did see it and took Coldplay's famous piano riff on purpose. This is David Guetta's 2009 summer hit When Love Takes Over.


And here, the original - Coldplay and their Clocks:

Waka Waka vs. Wavin' Flag

Here we are, just after Football World Cup in Africa. What's left apart from sport emotions? Well, the songs. Last time I remember a song made specially for sport event to really catch the attention of worldwide audience was 1998 and Ricky Martin's The Cup of Life - maybe better known under the title Go go go (alle alle alle).

Happy B-Day!

Here's the very special day for me - the B-day having two meanings. It is international Beatles Day (Here you get some info), but what is much more important it is a birthday of a person very dear to my heart. I'd like too wish you all the best by posting this image =)

Csakis egy angyal lehetsz szőke hajjal, köszönöm, hogy vagy! =) Thank you!

The interNational Treasure

I don't quite believe what's going on in the world. The National's new album, High Violet, reached number 3 on Billboard 200. I love America, its attitude of working hard and believing in american dream. But I can't say their musical tastes match mine. I'm not into shallow pop or R'n'B. Or rap. These genres pretty much dominate on US charts. And now I look on the Wikipedia reading some facts about the newest The National offering. Well, if you don't know the band, I tell you: it's not R'n'B. It's not even a bit poppy. It's sad music, it's lazy music, it's profound music. It is melodic music. It's independent music, alternative. And what do I find? Number 3 in the US, number 5 in the UK. Right, UK is far more "rocky", but US? Well, I'm shocked but full of hope that good music, that album oriented music can still have a touch with millions. But what really made American's buy this obscure band?

The Masterplan

Music industry has been revealing its secrets to me for some time now. In the country that I live in, music singles charts come from voting. In the 90s, when I first learned this truth, when someone wanted their favourite song to be on top of the charts one must of send a postcard or make a call to the radio station and vote. So actually there are no singles charts as the Brits, Americans, Germans know them.

Welcome to the World of The Plastic Beach...

...and to the world of art pop.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Bono once said about the difference between pop and rock: pop tells you that everything is all right and rock shows you what is still wrong and calls for revolution.

Well, if this definition applied to every kind of music, Plastic Beach might be called rock album. Or hard rock. New Damon Albarn's project criticizes consumerism and commercialism in the most intelligent way you could imagine - by becoming commercial and artificial itself. Under the trip-hop, modern beats and synths (Plastic Beach) one shall find libretto concerning microwave culture (Superfast Jellyfish), question of nature (Some Kind of Nature) or love in electric world (Stylo).

I think that most of the people have forgotten what this song is about. Because the melody itself is so good and memorable and the song is so famous.

And I know I just discovered the meaning of it. I feel it.

Ayrton Senna

He would be 50 today.



Happy birthday Ayrton! You are the one who combines all that a hero needs. Spirit, skills, humanity, anger, willingness to victory, and what is most important, faith.

I want my, I want my MTV...!

Yesterday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFhKmMWG3WE

Found it accidentally and had to write this short commentaire. Just spot the right-up corner. D'you know what I mean, yeah yeah? That was MTV back then...

But to be honest, although in general I'm against all this "sex, dance and beat 'n' house" pop shit of today, I like Lady G., she's original and intelligent at least. And she knows she's kitsch*. Rihanna doesn't.

Then pop music was art, now pop music is a**. Bitter I am. God forgive me these words.

T.

PS. Lord, they even used to play Vangelis on the radio back then.
PPS. By the way, Mull of Kintyre is still Britain's second biggest selling single of all time, apart charity singles. It only falls short of Elton John's remake of "Candle in the Wind" for the Lady D.

Chopin's year

Fryderyk Chopin, famous Polish composer and pianist, one of the most prolific musicians of all time was born 200 years ago- hence 2010 is the Chopin year.

And here's a brilliant tribute to him. But what would be a post of mine without some "influences in music" sauce over it?

So, here we go: Chopin vs Radiohead and outstanding Jack Conte as a performer. Just wow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X-PRpqj7N4&feature=grec

Please don't wake me or the importance of being idle

For the lazy people.

The classic (funny video - you can watch the Beatles cartoon or just the song itself from 2:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlKCxJ2o_fk

The remake of the classic and a classic itself (childhood memories for me, Beatles at the disco =):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0nXhQj-mis&feature=related

And the Beatles influenced but really a classic on it's own (love the video as well):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jySfU10IQu4

Try it out. I'm proud to be lazy!

Rock was pop, now is alternative

I mean, you never know how contemporary music will be seen in future. Let's take a short look at the history of popular music of the last 50 days.
Since the 50s rock music ruled the world - Elvis, then The Beatles defined not only the era. Especially influences of the latter are being seen to this day - and I'm certain they will be. 70s was the time of classic rock - rock was pop of that time.
All this changed in the 80s. Rock was a bit of passé. No more Led Zeppelins, no more McCartneys and Yeses on charts. Synthesisers took over. Rock music was set to the role of an "alternative" - with some exceptions the name seems appropriate to this day. These exceptions were/are (for me at least):

U2 (ruled 1987-88) - an archetype of an alternative band - no more big solos, no more long instrumentals, but pure energy, stripped-down sound and heartfelt emotions. If I was to call one moment when U2 crashed the pop dominance of Michaels Jacksons and disco it would be 1987 and the album "The Joshua Tree" - they are still doing it occasionally.

Nirvana (ruled 1992-1994) - 11th January 1992 - "Nevermind" peaks the Billboard chart. Quite a feat for any rock band today (Except maybe U2). They ruled the world back then. Again for a while rock - called grunge then said to the other genres "sit and listen"

Oasis (ruled 1994-1997) - "Live Forever" was written as opposed to Nirvana's attitude "I will kill myself" but it was the time when Oasis took the reign after Seattle-based band and ruled for a while. Pop was rock back then. How I miss these days and I'm certain I'm not the only one.

Then after 1997 rock music was withdrawn and we set our radios to hip-hop, dance and so on, so sad. I don't dismiss this stuff, don't get me wrong but I can't really sense any truth in that. Yeah, Bono may be a bit pretentious, Cobain killed himself and Gallaghers are idiots. But they're true or at least were back then.

There are some rock bands now which show some potential to take the reign over pop scene once more. You don't have to particularly like them but Coldplay and Chris Martin's melodic skills (Bono said Martin is the best melodist since Noel Gallagher and on par with Paul McCartney) may win the prize. They didn't quite reach their "Joshua Tree" but anyway.

Oh yeah, some might say: Radiohead! They're certainly the most creative band of the last 20-30 years but they've got no chance of conquering the mass audience of radio listeners - they've got no hits, simple as that.

Rock music since the day of Elvis seems to me as a way of life rather than bland entertainment of today's Rihannas, Black Eyed Peases and so on. Way of life and way of saying something. But I might be wrong. I mean, you never know how contemporary music will be seen in future then?

(Oh, and the last thing, just found it now, maybe the most emotional song from this band, it hit me yesterday. For Kari! Hope you like it =)
Magnificent tune, isn't it? Tune man, not 50 Cent ;)

EDIT: Just found this, the colours and the atmoshere - everything seemed to me like destined for one person, you know who =) I post it here so you can watch or not ;)
All Around The World

F1 sneak in (no. 1)

Oh, just found it today. It's not just Michael, just look at the car! Mercedes has the best commercials in history of... anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bc43153Wlw

Comparison anyone?

Mercedes SLS

Mercedes SLK

Still I don't know which team should I support this year, maybe Kari helps me ;)

Art of borrowing

I can't resist it - I listen to music not only to have fun or create the mood. I listen to it and think about influences, about the way the songwriter thinks while writing a melody. I think about the arrangement, about progression (or regression) in music. I have in mind all the creative "gods" of the past while listening to today's music. I want to present here things that I've noticed listening to music, which came virtually unnoticed by the majority of listeners (yeah, I sound bullshit, but think I'm right). Every such a "discovery" is a great fun for me.

How does it work? I hear a song or a composition and just think "I've heard this hook/line/melody/harmony before!". And then I sometimes know where did I hear it first and sometimes not. Today I want to show you the song for which it took me 2 years to come to a conclusion.

Year 1995. Oasis and britpop movement overtook the world. Everyone who experienced it (I was 7 at the time so it's the sound of my childhood :) knows what I'm talking about. Pop music was SOMETHING back then, not like now, when the valuable music (call it pop, rock, whatever) is called alternative :( But this is a topic for another post.

The opening song from Oasis' second LP "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?". "Hello". Everybody knows that the bit in the chorus ("Hello, hello, I'm back again") is a sample from a Gary Glitter song and Oasis song is actually credited to "Noel Gallagher, Gary Glitter, Mike Leander". But the bit in the pre-chorus bridge was always mysterious to me - to be exact the guitar descent (just 3 notes backed by the chords) with the words "And it's never gonna be the same" sounded so outstanding and well-known. Just a short bit it is, but anyway I told you that I'm a freak =)

No more words, just examples:

Oasis - Hello - spot 1:04

Then there's the song from which it came. Glam rock classic rock band Slade and their hit:

Slade - Cum On Feel The Noise - the main riff at the start and during chorus

Oh and by the way - Oasis covered this song :)

But then there's another song, surprisingly by Slade, which used the same motiff, that is this one:

Slade - Far Far Away - spot 0:44 (chorus)

And this last one is probably the song of which I thought when I first listened to "Hello" by Oasis back then in spring 2008 :) Any thoughts?

10 best melodists in pop music contest

Imagine the world has run out of electrocity. We are left only with some archaic feelings like love, with some out-of-fashion means of locomotion like our feet, with computers made of tissue called brains. And with music that can describe all that. But when you don't have your box of electronic effects, no beats, no discos, you can only pick up some acoustic guitars and use your voice. WHAT SONG CAN STAND THAT? That's a question, don't you think?

I think I’m not the only one, who wonders why some songs just stick and are around for a longer period of time (call it forever!) and the others not. There were many influential artists in the past 50 years, who emerged in the time, when pop music became the leading force in musical industry (I am a great fan of classical music as well, but taking into consideration that I don’t know that much about it, I’ll stick to rock and roll and what follows) but few survived over the years going by. Why there are some songs which became standards and everyone knows them? What is that core of the business that made "Yesterday" like everybody’s song?

I bet you know the answer, because it’s simple, although many “true” musicians refuse to admit that. Composition. Or maybe rather the composition. Melody and harmony in the background make the hits songs. No more no less. Guy Dudgeon (producer of Elton John’s albums) said “there are not hit lyrics, there are hit melodies”. And that’s true. Even if Paul McCartney had released his "Yesterday" as “Scrambled Eggs” you would know this song. Because of the melody. There are just some people who craft melodies effortlessly. And they need nothing more because when the melody is memorable and better, hummable, you don’t have to overdub tons of effects on the record. There are many who hide their inability to write hit melodies with production, beats, arrangements. Yes, I’m a fan of melodies and I always like the song which I can actually sing in the bathroom better than the most progressive but hard to understand piece of music. Although I like these ones too.
Going to the point. I’d like to show you my list of greatest pop music composers. Not necessarily songwriters, mark my words! Some of them have/had the skills to make their songs so memorable they will survive hundreds of years, just like Mozart or Bach. I’m quite certain about this. And one more thing before I start: relative simplicity of pop music do not mean that this is any worse than Mozart. He also wrote pop music. Yes he did.

So today, number 10 on my subjective list:

10. Sting

The man who stands behind the hit singles of The Police. But, what is unusual, he made his own name even bigger than the band’s he wrote for. What is so special about him that he can make a post-punk song like “Roxanne”, a pop-masterpiece “Every Breath You Take” and East-influenced “Desert Rose” become an international Hit? And when I write this, there come to my mind at least 5 more signature tunes from this guy + some memorable instrumental hooks. Here we go with his signature tunes:


(I used to hate this song, it’s so overplayed, dare I say. But anyway it’s so massive with hooks and melody that no wonder that it has been sampled so many times to this day)


(Quite the same story as above – and music shops’ workers are probably sick of the classical guitar hook! ;)


(The song that blend effortless melodic craft with acoustic hook plus orchestra into one more masterpiece about love. And what is very important – the eastern influences are so obvious yet very pleasing. Very personal song to me as well)

Well that’s Sting on spot number 10. Any suggestions of the songs that best show his melodic skills and intuition? Comments appreciated. And watch for no 9!

Aye!

First entry. First thoughts. Well, this is my vision. Vision of the world, of music, of love, of everything that comes to my mind. Surprisingly - sounds not so original. But hey, haven't you ever wanted to beat The Beatles in some way? Place for you to realise!

Hints in this song maybe. Oh well.
Swirling argument about life

We can work it out, don't we? First hint: be yourself as John is: making all these stupid faces which I personally tend to love in a way :)