Stuff I'm Listening To - #66 - Arcadia - Keep Me In the Dark

Nicky Peanut watches wearily as I photograph him with his favourite vinyl.

Artist: Arcadia

Title: Keep Me In The Dark

Favourite Lyrics: 
When without words you call me closer each time you turn away
Something inside you cries but is it something I'll never find

Why?: Happy birthday Simon LeBon!

This is the original 1985 vinyl release pictured above. My cat approved of the selection for today.

When I first started collecting music, it resided largely on cassettes. They were compact, reasonably priced and portable. Vinyl purchases were still necessary, as album artwork was always inferior on cassette inserts. When I started collecting Duran Duran, there was a convenience store nearby that had racks of old records from the 80s for sale from anywhere between $2 and $5. The covers were all damaged, with a hole poked through the bottom left corner. Half of my Duran Duran collection came from that store.

One of the records that emerged from that store was this album and I came to realise that I wasn't a Duranie so much as I was a huge fan of Arcadia. Everything about this off-shoot of Duran Duran was beautiful to me. A bit gothy, a bit moody, a bit pretentious, a bit artsy, and a budget that allowed Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBon to indulge their musical explorations at the time. Just as John Taylor and Andy Taylor embarked on their own side project, and amazing rock album as the Power Station with legendary vocalist Robert Palmer and drummer from Chic, Tony Thompson. 

But I wasn't so much into rock. This moody-synth pop that Arcadia was offering fit me best at the time, a bit gothy, a lot moody and a bit pretentious and (trying to be) artsy. I'm particularly in love with the hidden codes on the album cover. It's a simple code but added to the mystic of the whole Arcadia thing. The hidden code makes me giggle as it may have had something to do with their added entry into a book called "The Rock Report" by Fletcher A Brothers, which tried to detail all the places in pop and rock music during the 80s where the devil was showing up. It's hard to tell at times if this was satire or not. 

While I adore the entire album, the second track immediately struck a chord with me. Something about the way Simon sounds as he's singing those lines hits me right in the feels. The way he sounds when he's harmonizing with himself... Ahem... I'm going to a need a moment...

Stuff I'm Listening To - #65 - World Opera Day Edition

Artists: Carl Stalling, Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese (uncredited: Nicolai G. Shutorov vocals)

Episode: Long-Haired Hare

Favourite Quote: 
Of course you know, this means WAR!

Why?: In honour of World Opera Day I present a classic. 

Let's be brutally honest here. I, like most people my age, got educated in Opera from these guys. Many a Saturday morning was spent seated in front of the TV in our PJs, eating far-too-sweet candy-like cereal, watching the crazy antics of these guys. Were the cartoons wildly inappropriate? YES! Violent? Absolutely! Filled with great music? You betcha! It was amazing we ever made it out of the 80s alive! I could rant on about our overly-sensitive culture today, but as usual, I digress.

It was a toss up between this cartoon and the ones featuring Bugs with Elmer Fudd in 'Rabbit of Seville' or the amazing Wagner-eque 'What's Opera, Doc?'.

You have to admit, Giovanni Jones must be one of the best vocalists around (albeit a fictional one) based on this cartoon alone. Then there's Bugs Bunny, the jack-of-all-trades musician. I can't think of many people who can boast being able to play a banjo, harp and sousaphone, and then pull off a convincing impersonation of the great conductor Leopold Stokowski.

My love of opera comes from Bugs Bunny and my mother. You see, my parents were patient with me watching these cartoons. My mother could find a teachable moment in almost every television show we watched. She used to be a nurse, prior to her career as mom. For example, with every medical drama she could tell you with further detail what the procedure entailed. With Looney Tunes, she would tell me what opera a song was from and a little summary of what the opera was about. She would tell me she'd seen one of the Wagner operas performed live when she was in West Germany. She lived so many experiences and TV seemed to be one of the ways she'd tell me about them.

Happy world opera day!

Stuff I'm Listening To #64 - AC/DC

Artist: AC/DC

Title: Highway to Hell

Favourite Lyrics:
No stop signs, speed limit
Nobody's gonna slow me down
Like a wheel, gonna spin it
Nobody's gonna mess me around
Hey Satan, paid my dues

Why?: Today is the anniversary of the bit of Dragon slaying Paul and I did two years ago. This song, I promise you, is on repeat in every store in Deal's Gap, North Carolina. This little 11 mile (18 kilometer) stretch of interstate highway 128 that we came down to ride on, is known as the Tail of the Dragon. It consists of 318 curves and many of them are hairpins. You don't ride this bit of highway lightly and it was the life affirming trip I wanted to take to prove to myself and to Paul that I was fine and I could handle anything life (or my motorcycle) threw at me.

This song will forever be associated with this trip we took. We rode the entire round trip of 2,700 km + in just over 4 days, with one day (including a couple of hours after the sunset) of playing on the dragon. 

Aside from this, the songs a rockin' tune anyway. Great for any road trip. :)

9 States and 1 Province for an 18 km bit of wheeeeee!

Sexy beasts... and the guy riding the Harley is pretty sweet too.

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 7 - It's My Life

Artist: No Doubt

Original Artist: Talk Talk

Favourite Lyrics: 
Funny how I find myself
In love with you. 
If I could buy my reasoning, 
I'd pay to lose

Why?: If anyone was surprised by this song's appearance on my blog this week... um... you must be new here! HI! Let me introduce myself!  

First, no contest here. The original is my favourite hands down! Second... 'But wait', you're thinking... 'you already posted a Talk Talk song'... Yes. I did. But the original artist for that song was a group called the Reaction, so there. 

This was the cover song that prompted this week long theme. Sometimes being a Talk Talk fan means you feel like you're part of some kind of church. For me, it felt like your affirmation to join the Church of Talk Talk is to declare how much you detest No Doubt's version of the song. Poor No Doubt, clearly they are the devil to Talk Talk. So at that I'm going to have to say that I'm more of a casual worshiper, you know, the kind that only visits Easter and Christmas... or would that be April 5th and maybe January 4th? ;) 

I like this version. It reminded me when it came out, that there was this amazing song from a long time ago that I really, really liked. From some band that didn't exist anymore. And the lead singer had a sweet voice. It reminded me that 'HEY! Wait a second... I have this in the form of the extended mix buried somewhere on a compilation CD' and I hadn't quite migrated it to my iPod. Since then the extended version by Talk Talk has forever resided within my digital music library.

I like No Doubt as a band, so I certainly didn't get bend out of shape over the cover song. Sorry fellow Talkies (see, I'm still new. I have zero idea... what do you refer to yourself as if you're a devout follower of Talk Talk anyway?), but some of you seem to have a seriously misguided hate on for Gwen Stefani. No Doubt remade the song, but practically note for note it's unchanged. If that's not honouring the original arrangement for the perfection it was, I'm not sure what else I can be said. 

A personal aside, today is a bit of an anniversary and both versions of this song become relevant (well, it's a stretch, but my blog, my life, I do what I want!) If you follow my blog, you'll know I was in a motorcycle accident in 2016. In 2017, this day would have been the eve of Paul and I setting out for what was going to be the longest motorcycle trip we'd ever taken. We rode (not trailered) our motorcycles from Toronto to Deal's Gap in Tennessee. My bike, we joke, tried to kill me, not unlike No Doubt's video. And this song (Talk Talk, not No Doubt) is the love song I've sung to my bike ever since.

Original video below. BONUS: One of the better mash-up audios from youtube, where Gwen Stefani's vocals are matched up with Mark Hollis' so anyone who doesn't believe my claim that note for note, No Doubt changed very, very little, they can hear it for themselves. For what it's worth, I feel like they did a pretty good job of it. The only thing I would critique would be that Adrian Young is a clearly a great punk/ska drummer but doesn't appear to have Lee Harris' talent for flourishes and subtly that dress the original version and the bass guitar doesn't sound quite right, which I'm chalking up to the difference between Paul Webb having used a fret-less vs fretted one that Tony Kanal uses (I assume). (Note: There's a bit of a delay in the start of the audio, but it doesn't have that weird choppy digital-ness that's running through the first result you get if you tried looking up Talk Talk vs No Doubt).

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 6 - Kiss

Artist: The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones

Original Artist: Prince

Favourite Lyrics:

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

Why?: It's undergarment flinging time! 

I have to say I like Tom Jones' version better than Prince's. It's not because I heard Tom Jones/Art of Noise version first. I already knew of Prince’s version. 

I like Prince. He’s an amazing artist with an awesome back library. The first song I'd ever heard from Prince was the song When Doves Cry. I remember my older brother used to tease me over liking the song, but I can't remember the particulars for the teasing. I think he may have grown sick of the song from the over exposure it was getting at the time. I purchased (or I made my dad buy it for me... it was so long ago and I don't remember how I came to own it) the soundtrack for Purple Rain on cassette because I really liked it. 

I’m also a fan of the Art of Noise. These guys burst into my life in the form of the Close to the Edit video. My recollection of that music video was them destroying the piano with sledgehammers and chainsaws, and my mother being utterly horrified. My 10-year-old self was happy because it was a good representation of how much I detested practicing piano at the time and it was my little bit of rebellion to keep the music video playing while my mom made Korean sounds of disgust at the wanton destruction of a perfectly good piano on screen. 

I wasn’t sure who Tom Jones was. However when of this version of kiss came on the radio I was immediately drawn to it. Art of Noise’s big brassy sound and Tom Jones’ booming voice worked well together. I really do love Tom Jones' voice. 

The video for the original version by Prince is below. 

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 5 - The Tra La La Song

Artist: Liz Phair and Material Issue

Original Artist: the Banana Splits

Favourite Lyrics:
Making up a mess of fun
Making up a mess of fun
Lots of fun for everyone!
Tra la la la la la la

Why?: I'm old. I love that I still get carded when trying to buy alcohol which means to some people I still appear to be under 25. I assure you, despite the fact I may act like a petulant teenager at times, I'm no millennial. I am a little bit older than most people assume. Someone was once surprised that I knew who Johnny Carson was when I made a Carnac the Magnificent reference. If you've been following along, remember those late nights when I would stay up late to try and catch some decent music videos? Carson would have been on just prior... or if it was the weekend and my dad was up (and he would let me stay up late) we (dad, older brother and I) would watch Dave Allen together (don't ask me about Dave... I was really too young to get his jokes). But, as usual, I digress.

The Banana Splits, for those not in the know, was an hour long kids variety show, hosted by these costumed creatures. I was very young when this show came on. The only thing I really remember from it was the song. It was the best kind of catchy ear-worm that would get stuck in your head for hours... days... years.

Costumed mascot type creatures would play a bigger role in my life than I would have thought. As luck would have it, my work placement for college led me to meet a really, really awesome guy. A fine gentleman by the name of Mark Scott who designed and built these kinds of characters. So here's where I name drop because I just have to. While I was working with Mark, I was also working with one of the biggest stars in children's television in Ontario. The big star of Polka Dot Door, Polkaroo, was my boss! Just don't ask me for a reference from him. He was already gone before I could get one. ;)

He had managed (with a little help from me) to co-ordinate a live magic show that made a couple of appearance that summer. His Mascotts show would have been like seeing the Banana Splits live. I have so many fond memories working with Mark, dressing up as a bear, a purple people eater and I think I may have also been a pink elephant. It was a lot of fun. He had been such a positive influence on my life and I'm happy to count him as one of my friends still. 

Back to the song... Imagine my surprise after many years that a compilation CD of Saturday morning cartoon theme songs would get released in the mid-nineties of cover versions. Imagine my further surprise to hear my beloved Banana Splits song being belted out by Liz Phair. I promptly bought this CD and ended up purchasing it twice because my first copy went missing. It featured Matthew Sweet singing the Scooby Dooby Doo, Where are You?, Face to Face singing I'm Popeye the Sailor and the Ramones covering Spider-Man. 

So despite having heard the original version first, Liz Phair and Material Issue is my go to for the song. I love her version. It reminds me of that summer I worked with Mark, and it makes regular appearances on my motorcycle riding playlist.

Bonus! For some, clearly unknown to me, reason, someone decided my beloved kids show should be remade into a horror movie. I'm conflicted. The trailer is linked below the original opening and closing themes for the show.

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 4 - Ziggy Stardust

Artist: Bauhaus

Original Artist: David Bowie
 
Favourite Lyrics: 
Now Ziggy really sang, screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo 
Like some cat from Japan, he could lick 'em by smiling 
He could leave 'em to hang 
'Came on so loaded man, well hung and snow white tan.

Why?: Unfortunately for me, I did not hear the David Bowie version first. And as some people have noted, a song is usually dependent on which version you may have heard first. For me, it was Bauhaus. And by default it is the preferred version for me. 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love David Bowie's original version. Bauhaus wins by a hair because I heard it first and because of some nice memories associated with it.

During my years as a freelance goth (because there were no mods around), I would spend many, many hours at a local goth club that's moved from legend to myth. Yup. I was a regular at Sanctuary, the Vampire Sex Bar when it moved to it's final location at Queen Street in Toronto (at Claremont). Bauhaus was in heavy rotation along with so many other goth and industrial dance hits. A large number of the cover songs I like were from the playlists of those evenings. (Bigod 20's version of Like a Prayer, NIne Inch Nails' version of Get Down, Make Love, 1000 Homo DJs with Supernaught. Siouxsie and the Banshees with Dear Prudence... it's a long list and many of these covers would be the first time I heard those songs (Bigod 20 one of the exceptions on the list only trumped Madge's because it was louder and angrier). I have some wonderful memories of Skank (the nickname all regulars affectionately bestowed upon this hole in the wall). 

The most important memory I have of Skank was the fact that despite feeling like an outsider most of the time, they welcomed me with open arms. The staff (bouncers and bartenders and owner) always smiled and were decent people. They were always nice to me, even the few times I got totally hammered. Nobody ever acted nasty towards me, even though I didn't quite fit in. Nobody ever commented about how I looked unless it was in a positive way. Nobody ever stole my packs of smokes either! Apparently I smoked the worst, undesirable cigarettes at the time, so while everyone else's smokes got taken from the table that day, my full pack was left behind! (Benson and Hedges Ultra Light Menthols because my dad smoked them and he wouldn't notice a pack going missing every now and then). Despite the stories you may have heard, Skank was a surprisingly safe place for me to hang out at, despite the cruddy neighbourhood it was in. The day it closed, even though I was not in attendance, was a sad day. It closed down and reopened as a Starbucks. I'm told, it's now a dental office. I wonder if they do fang porcelain crowns?

Below, David Bowie in concert. BONUS: Fellow gothlings. I found an interview with Lance, the owner of Sanctuary. If this blog post gets back to Lance, I want to say: Thanks for the memories! Sanctuary was my second home!

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 3 - My Way

Viewer Discretion Advised because violence, bad words and such. 

Artist: Sid Vicious

Original Artist: Frank Sinatra

Favourite Lyrics (Cover): 
There were times, I'm sure you knew
When there was fuck fuck fuck all else to do 
But through it all, when there was doubt
I shot it up or kicked it out. I faced the wall and the world
And did it my way

Favourite Lyrics (Original):
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

  
Why?: At 14 years old I was learning a lot about music. If it had not been for Duran Duran's bassist, John Taylor, stating in an interview that the Sex Pistols were one of his favourite bands, I would probably have discovered them much later on. So in my pursuit of all of things Duran Duran (which also meant looking for anything they talked about... Don’t laugh! I only listened to Tago Mago by Can because Mark Hollis said to!) I found myself purchasing the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. 

I want to tell you that upon hearing Sid Vicious screeching out old blue eyes’ hit song was some kind of epiphany. It was. It was raw, terrible and noisy. I was amazed. Here was the kind of strange weird unsettling angry energy, mixed with the right amount of childish mischief I was feeling as an angsty teenager, reflected back at me through Sid's off-key howling. This was likely my first jump into punk. I had never heard God Save the Queen, or Anarchy in the UK before this, that I could recall. I never heard the Clash, or any number of great punk bands up until that very moment. And the video, the meaningless violence... I've always been a fan of meaningless fictional violence. After all, horror movies are great fun. 

My dad seemed to really like Frank Sinatra (though my brother assures me, not that much. The multitude of Frank Sinatra's records from his collection? A product of joining Columbia House (you know, the 10 records for a penny thing?) back in the day. I’m not sure if he ever listened to Sid's version with me or not. As with most things that I did in my teenage years, my parents accepted things with a kind of quiet patience in hopes (I assume) that I would outgrow my weirdness. 

As I get older, I've come to appreciate Frank much, much more, and Sid, much less. I've become an old bitter lady, yelling at kids to get off my lawn. But at heart, especially while I'm hooligan riding my motorcycle through the streets, I assure you, I'm singing along, off key, not with Frank, but with Sid. Below, Old Blue Eyes belting out his anthem and Bonus: Comme d'Habitude by Claude François - the song that the music comes from, though it was Paul Anka who wrote the English words (unrelated to the French song) that became the hit that it is. 

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 2 - Talk Talk Talk Talk

Artist: Talk Talk 

Original Artist: The Reaction

Favourite Lyrics: (Original)
Well yeah, I told you before when I was up, 
Society was bringing me down.
Politicians they keep talking in rhymes.
Twisting around to make me think you're straight down the line

Favourite Lyrics: (Cover)

Well, did I tell you before when I was up?
Anxiety was bringing me down
I'm tired of listening to you talking in rhymes
Twisting around to make me think you're straight down the line

Why?: If I ever needed an excuse to post things by Mark Hollis three times in one go, this is it! 

The desire to know if Talk Talk had ever done a cover song has been stuck in my head for a long while. So far as I knew, Talk Talk never recorded any cover songs.

Recently, I had queried in a few Facebook groups a fun "what if...?". What if Talk Talk had indulged themselves and done an album of covers, what do you think would be on it or what would you have liked to see them cover? It was a fun discussion that gave me few new (to me) discoveries of some great music. But alas, we will never know what songs they would have wanted to remake.

There was one hint in an interview once with Mark noting how he loved Singin' in the Rain and the Gene Kelly dancing through the streets part. But trying to envision a Talk Talk cover and accompanying video for it has stretched the very limits of my Peanut brain (this is the same brain that, fueled by spicy pizza, managed to cast Mark Hollis and Lee Harris in Bladerunner one night)... trying to imagine Mark recreating Gene Kelly’s number has been hard to do. But as usual, I digress. 

After the fantasy covers album discussion had peaked and went away, my brain decided, in a 'too much shwarma the night before' laced dream, that Talk Talk did indeed release a cover song, originally recorded and released by a different band, albeit one that had the same lead singer. I'm not sure if this qualifies officially as a cover song as Mark co-owned the rights to the song with his brother Ed, but for the purposes of my list, it is a cover. Part of this whole cover/not cover debate was brought on by John Fogerty, who used the music from Run Through The Jungle and stuck his Old Man Down The Road lyrics over it. He was sued for copyright infringement by CCR's label. This was part of my justification for this as well, though I know the situation is entirely different and the outcome not entirely in favour of my criteria... but my brain, my logic, ok?*

Naturally, the first version of the song I'd ever heard would be Talk Talk's version from their debut album. I have these vague recollections that I may have known about this song back in the day but never made the connection that this was the same band that sang It's My Life until last year. Did I like the song in the beginning? I can't remember. Given that it was most likely the Russell Mulcahy version of the video (below) that I saw first, I'm going to say no. Mulcahy's video was likely too weird for six/seven year old me and definitely spurred some strange men in white-suits nightmares for me at that age. Hmmm... Let me explain. They only seemed to play decent music videos late at night back then. I was anywhere from four to eight years old back in those days. So here I was, up late when I shouldn't be. It's dark, quiet and a bit spooky (think older, creaky house). I'm sitting there watching these music videos, as quietly as possible and sometimes on mute because I'm waiting for something familiar, a little tired and with all the wrong heightened emotions running through me. It should be easy to see why a Talk Talk video, of all things, would cause me to have a weird dream/nightmare.

I have discovered in the past year that Mark Hollis fronted another band prior to Talk Talk, a mod/punk band called The Reaction. The Reaction have released exactly three songs. The single for I Can't Resist, and it's B-side I'm A Case, and this, their contribution to a compilation record. Their track for Talk Talk Talk Talk (audio only) is below. As for which version is my favourite? I'm a little torn. Of course Talk Talk rates high, as it's that 80s synth-pop I will forever love, but then the original version by The Reaction, a much younger and angrier Mark Hollis has its charms as well. I'll say that my favourite version is largely dependent on if I'm wearing my safety pins for earrings that day or not. BONUS: Russell Mulcahy's 'I'm gonna film stuff and throw in a monkey and use the same weird shots and concepts for Bonnie Tyler later' attempt for Talk Talk is also linked below (featuring Paul Webb's most aweome gravity defying pompadour... Yeah, I'm still jealous of it). 

(Personal aside: So far as I'm concerned, what worked for Duran Duran (i.e. Colin Thurson, Russell Mulcahy), clearly did not work for Talk Talk... everybody needs to stop comparing the two. It's lazy journalism. Thanks.)


*Thanks to my cohorts, Penny, Curmudgeon and the Queen for letting me bounce this idea off them a few weeks ago.

Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 1- Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)

Artist: Duran Duran

Original Artist: Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel (linked below)

Title: Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)

Lyrics: 
There ain't no more, you've taken everything

From my belief in Mother Earth
Can you ignore my faith in everything
'Cause I know what faith is and what it's worth

Why?: The first time I heard this song was when I was 13 years old, and just diving into Duran Duran's extensive back library in 1988. Recorded live at Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 and released as a B-side to The Reflex 12" single I did not quite realise for about ten minutes that this was even a cover... and then I read the label on my newly acquired vinyl. 

I had no idea who Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were at the time. Remember, this was pre-internet so it was quite some time before I found a used tape with the original song on it and I fully admit, I did not like the original version. I was still honing my musical chops and still sweet on 80s synth pop (and still am). So this was the furthest from what I was listening to at the time. It would be many years before I finally began to appreciate the original version, but Duran Duran's cover remains my favourite. I can't answer exactly why Duran Duran's version gave me (still gives me) goosebumps. I think something about how it sounded like a Duran Duran song (to me) but markedly different. It gave me this enormous feeling of nostalgia, even though, at 14, what the heck did I have in life experiences to make me feel that level of nostalgia? But that's what I felt. Simon leBon's voice gave me the kind of shivers and goosebumps when I was a teenager that Mark Hollis' voice does to me now. Having brought up Duran Duran's version of song after many years of not hearing it, I giggled and was awed by it once again. I'm still a Duranie at heart. That's never going to change.

Linked below, the original Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel version and BONUS: Erasure's version (which I also enjoyed) from their cover album Other People's Songs complete with their accompanying weirdly wonderful video.