Some random music links on this very cold, grey Monday.
First, country music
Hey, I was raised in a small town in Northern California. My dad worked for the Sheriff’s Department and I was in the 4H club. My sisters and I barrel raced in rodeos, we showed quarter horses, and went hunting with my dad. I was a born baby redneck…I just got weird later on. :) Anyway, links to some really good songs, if you can get past the “country” bit:
- Emmylou Harris, Ballad of a Runaway Horse. Ignore the video, just listen to the song. Leonard Cohen lyrics here, such gorgeous poetry.
- Trisha Yearwood, Down On My Knees. One of the most important things you can do in a relationship is to put aside pride. Again, ignore the video.
City of Angels
When I left highschool, I went to Los Angeles, and lived there for more than a decade. There was a time where I loved LA more than any other place in the world. It’s all changed now, of course, but when I was eighteen and living on the strand in Hermosa Beach, I wouldn’t have been any other place in the world.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Under the Bridge. This song came out too late, after I was no longer a pier rat hanging out at the beach every day. Had I heard it at the time, it would have been one of those songs that is forever representative of a certain time in life. Actually, it still is.
- Ricki Lee Jones, Last Chance Texaco. Again, alas, totally ignore the video. When I waitressed at the Rainbow, I used to see her staggering around totally drunk. She still sang like a street angel. This song (to me) is a very American song: our love of travelling, of muscle cars, of love and loneliness.
Two for the road
The last two are songs that have meant a lot to me over the years. I confess to being a diehard Marilyn Manson fan, and Sweet Dreams has been one of my favourite songs for ages. I love the man. The other is the Johnny Cash cover of Hurt. Although I have never been a Johnny Cash fan, I love NIN; this cover was perfect. It’s directed my one of my favourite video directors, Mark Romanek.
Postscript: Venus Envy, I’ll Be A Homo For Christmas. I couldn’t find my copy this Christmas, which really bothered me – it’s travelled with me for years. Unfortunately they don’t have sound files for all songs (No Chipmunk Commitment Song, boo!) but some of them are here. :D
So there you go, some really random links, unfortunately representative of my state of mind today.