Who Do You Want To Be

This song is a favorite from my youth. Before Danny Elfman became one of the hottest film composers around, he was the front man for new wave outfit, Oingo Boingo. This track appears on their underrated third album, Good For Your Soul, as well as a few different movies. A later recording of this song can also be heard in in various Tony Hawk video games. It’s a good one for getting your blood pumping in the morning. Probably should have saved it for Monday, but I actually have to do a little hustling today, so here it is.

If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen to
Who Do You Want To Be by Oingo Boingo at Grooveshark.

Little Sister

This is an interesting song. It’s a great little tune, written and performed by Lou Reed satirizing Bob Dylan. In Allan Arkush‘s 1983 comedy, Get Crazy, Reed plays Auden, a genius folk singer in a creative rut because success and fame have purged his life of tragedy and despair. Auden is coaxed out of his apartment after about a decade by a “deathbed request” and with his mojo regained, Auden writes this song over the course of the film and (spoiler alert!) performs it at the end. I mean, literally at the end, you have to watch the credits for it. Despite its comedic origins, Little Sister is a genuinely moving song. Have you told your little sister how much you love her lately?

If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen to
Little Sister by Lou Reed at Grooveshark.

I Love Livin’ In The City

This is the first single from legendary L.A. punk band Fear, released four years before they recorded their first album. It’s been one of my favorites for a large part of my life; whenever I hear it now, memories of my (possibly misspent) youth come flooding back. Happy Friday, people.

If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen to
I Love Livin’ In The City by Fear at Grooveshark.

La Cotorra Criolla

The name of this song literally translates as The Creole Parrot, but the sentiment is really The Creole Rapper. Rapper’s Delight is widely acknowledged to be the pioneering rap record, but at the time, the genre hadn’t been named. Rap was still a slang word for talk or conversation, so when Rapper’s Delight was released in Venezuela, it was called La Cotorra (The Parrot), which at the time was local slang for a verbose speaker. While immensely popular, no one could understand what the hell The Sugarhill Gang was talking about, because the record was in English. Enter Venezuelan poet and humorist Perucho Conde.

In 1980, Conde took the beat from Rapper’s Delight (which was originally sampled from Chic‘s Good Times), added some Latin flavor and a sharp political critique and the result became his signature work. Not only is this the first Spanish rap song, but it’s also considered one of the first rap records in the world to offer up any sort of social commentary; the lyrics describe the living conditions of the working poor and offer criticism of the policies of then Venezuelan President Luis Herrera Campins. Whether you understand what he’s saying or not, one thing is definitely clear: Perucho Conde has some serious ass flow.

If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen to
La Cotorra Criolla by Perucho Conde at Grooveshark.

Nobody Does It Better

Marvin Hamlisch, the composer of the music to this Carly Simon hit, passed away yesterday, so this one is for him. I would have posted it here sooner or later anyway. It’s the theme from the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, so it’s all about how great he is at fucking women, which is in a similar vein to the Oxford Blues theme I posted a few weeks ago, so you know it’s one of my favorites. Carly Simon‘s performance on this song is so convincing, it sounds like she’s getting the best dick in existence, right there in the recording booth, while she’s singing. When I was kid and used to hear people talking about women faking orgasms, I pictured them bursting into the chorus of this song, because I was kid and there was no internet and therefore I had no frame of reference for what a woman having an orgasm, real or fake, was like. I’ll tell you this: if I’m ever having sex with a woman and she starting singing this in my ear, I’m pretty sure I would have an orgasm.

That’s my eulogy for Marvin Hamlisch; may he rest in peace. Rest assured, I will not be speaking at his funeral. Happy Hump Day!

If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen to
Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon at Grooveshark.

Life On Mars?

In honor of NASA landing their most advanced Mars Rover, Curiosity, on the surface of the Red Planet, I’m posting David Bowie‘s classic song. At first listen, it seems to be a simple, understated track, but it holds up to repeat listening because of the depth and complexity of the arrangement. The lyrics make little sense, and are probably not meant to be interpreted literally; how much you get out of them depends on what you bring to the table. The video embedded below was shot in 1973 in Earls Court, London.


If the embedded video doesn’t load, click to watch
David Bowie – Life On Mars? at YouTube.