Category Archives: ♫ ♪ ♫

Music

Saturday Night Studio – Walk On By

The song “Walk On By” was released in 1964, sung by Dionne Warwick. It was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, both part of the famous Brill Building group.

Her voice from 1:40 to 1:53 is a thing of wonder.

It spawned a large, nay, ridiculous number of cover versions, ranging from a 12 minute odyssey by Isaac Hayes…

…then from funk to punk with the Stranglers…

… and a version by Richard X with vocals by Deborah Evans that sounds like it was recorded next to a beachside video arcade…

{yeah, I dig that one]

… and back to radio-friendly yet very cool format by Seal in 2005 –

A very long list of covers can be found here.

 

Saturday Night Studio – Peter Gunns

Henry Mancini performs the legendary “Peter Gunn Theme” on the Steve Allen show circa 1983 or thereabouts, with friends Pete Candoli, Conte Candoli, Carl Fontana, Jerome Richardson, and Plas Johnson –

The iconic theme has inspired, been used, or been covered by… just about everybody, from The B-52s, to a Monty Python sketch, to a just-fooling-around Monkees version to a rather flat cover by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. I expect much hate mail from prog-rock fans, but it’s really not that great a cover. Deal with it.

There was also a beyond lame rap duo called Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, who had one hit with the atrocious “Deja Vu (Uptown Baby).” The less said, the better, except to note that they broke up after releasing exactly one single from one album. Reportedly they  surrendered large amounts of money to Steely Dan for sampling their song “Black Cow” without permission. One wonders if the events are related.

Art Of Noise did their version of the song in their own very 80s performance-art style, complete with video –

I remember it being on the radio quite a lot back then, during the Golden Age of Popular Music.

Saturday Night Studio – Saint Etienne

Back again with music you likely won’t hear on other radio stations…

In the early 90s, Saint Etienne released their debut album Foxbase Alpha, which featured a cover of a Neil Young song, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” Unlike the spare, acoustic original, they went with a house music style –

Sarah Cracknell sings in the video, but on the original track the vocals were by Moira Lambert, as Cracknell had not yet joined the band on a permanent basis. Sarah did appear in one of the two videos filmed for the song, miming the lyrics. A black and white video was also recorded, with “vocals” by Lucy Golden of the short-lived band Golden.

Version with Sarah

BW version with Lucy

That snippet you heard at the end of the concert vid is the next song in the set, “Method Of Modern Love.” No relation to the Hall & Oates hit from the 80s.

More songs from that show can be found on Youtube here. I rather like “Nothing Can Stop Us” –

Song – Only Love Can Break Your Heart on Amazon

Song – Nothing Can Stop Us on Amazon

Album – Foxbase Alpha on Amazon

 

 

 

 

Saturday Night Studio – Delavega

Some music for a Saturday night, that you probably won’t hear on other radio stations…

Delavega performing “One Time” and “On My Mind” –

Studio version of “One Time” –

Album at Amazon

The Dead Milkmen Window

…the pop cultural version of the Overton Window.

I used to think the Dead Milkmen were incredibly funny, if rather darkly so. Essentially, they were internet trolls before there was an internet. 4chan 20 years before there was a 4chan.

Nowadays, the best that can be said about them is that they were merely ahead of the curve. Anyone discovering this song today would think “Oh, just another noncissexual minority transidextrous person who wears lifts in their (hopefully fabulous) shoes.”

4/1/15: Eleven Of The Best Ever

4 + 1 + 1 + 5 = 11

For your listening pleasure, Night Sky Radio brings you 11 of the awesomest songs ever performed. Not recommended for the weak or fans of Lite Rock. Click here or on the Toob below to begin the playlist!

And please take a minute to visit our sponsors. If you are strong.

Beck And Call

So I just heard that Beck won the Grammy award and Kanye West is mad about it because he thinks Beyonce should have won it.

Quoth West, after the ceremony …

I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyoncé.

Because when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in their face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration.

Beck? Not a real artist? Like his songs or not, he is an artist, who plays multiple instruments and writes his own music. As for feats of music, he’s had two gold records, one platinum, and one double platinum, won several awards, and got every Gen X kid in America chanting “Soy un perdedor” in the 1994.

I’m also pretty sure Beyonce never had the Grim Reaper squeegeeing windshields in any of her videos.

I’ve not heard either Beck’s album or Beyonce’s, but I would bet sound unheard that Beck’s is at least as good or better. In the next day or two I’ll hunt them up and give each one a listen and see if Beck really is “disrespecting artistry” somehow. [ Addendum: I forgot, posting very late at night as I did, to mention that Beyonce’s singing ability is far better than Beck’s. Gotta give her that. ]

My favorite part of this nitwittery is how social media lit up like a Christmas tree on fire in a mirrored ball warehouse wondering who this Beck guy is. Not like he’s ever had a hit song on the radio or videos on MTV or anything.

And why is Kanye white knighting for Beyonce? Last I heard, Kanye was married to Kim Kardashian, why’s he out there reppin’ for another (married) woman? Again? Does she snap her fingers and he comes yapping, or does he do this on his own?

Shirley Manson of the band Garbage wrote an open letter slamming West –

“Dear Kanye West,

It is YOU who is so busy disrespecting artistry.

You disrespect your own remarkable talents and more importantly you disrespect the talent, hard work and tenacity of all artists when you go so rudely and savagely after such an accomplished and humble artist like BECK.

You make yourself look small and petty and spoilt.

In attempting to reduce the importance of one great talent over another, you make a mockery of all musicians and music from every genre, including your own.

Grow up and stop throwing your toys around.

You are making yourself look like a complete twat.

P.s. I am pretty certain Beyonce doesn’t need you fighting any battles on her account. Seems like she’s got everything covered perfectly well on her own.”

Heh. Seems that Shirley agrees on the white knighting.

There needs to be one of those “Real Men Of Genius” ads for Kanye and his idiotic showboating. There’s already a perfect theme song lying around by some no-name hack.

Lack Of Rhythm Method

What Are The Words? Oh, Nevermind

Now I’m mumblin’ and I’m screamin’
And I don’t know what I’m singin’

So Dalrock and others have posted about the newest masterpiece of feminist music…

A commenter wrote –

2014 will be the year that feminists lost control of the narrative, with such fails as “Gamergate” UVa, “Ban Bossy”, “Mattgate”, “He For She” (off the top of my head) demonstrating that they are a bunch of selfish misfits with First World problems.
From the looks of this, 2015 is off to a flying start for them.

Feminism has gone completely off the rails. In the past, there was at least some loosely defined fragment of a plan built on some vague goal of “liberation.” Now all the feminists with half a clue have aged out, died, or left the movement, leaving the useful idiots  they recruited running the show. And the evidence of their showrunning skills is readily apparent in the above clip.

Weird Al: Feminist Prophet

What’s the message I’m conveyin’?
Can you tell me what I’m sayin’?

Another commenter wrote “What message they are trying to convey is beyond me.”

Weird Al accidentally predicted how feminism would end up over 20 years ago –

The song describes the utter lack of anything resembling logic or coherency, and anticipates the day when tuneless howling and yipping would be presented as Deep Art.

And the video….

The video is the distilled essence of modern day feminism, covering every beat from

– The fat middle aged tranny cheerleader (see “women without vaginas”)

– Unshaved armpits

– Setting a man on fire

– A genderfluid janitor discovering his true identity

– Violent contempt for cookie-bearing Girl Scouts.

And Dick Van Patten’s eating addiction could be representative of any number of things.

Disco Zoo?

Just found this –

Funniest bit starts at 3:21

Happy New Year!

… and we will begin again. Happy 2015!

It feels like I’m living in the future.

Nothing changes this New Year’s Day, because I haven’t found a better song –

Now the comments will fill up with songs about New Year’s Day.