Tag Archives: lyrics

LYRICAL BEAUTY or HOW’D I END UP HERE

Was in a conversation about 2020 and politics and someone said “this is going nowhere” and in my head I said “one last time let’s go there” because somehow, Paolo Nutini’s magical song from 2006 jumped into my head.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the connections our mind makes for us, bringing me all the way back here. To this song.

He was 19 when he created this. When I was 19 I had barely created memories, let alone anything memorable.

How did politics get me to Paolo Nutini?

The beauty of words phrases and stories I guess?

What he did with those two sentences dances on my mind, my tongue, and depending on the moment, my heart. “Sure I can accept that we’re going nowhere

But one last time, let’s go there”

Applies to so many things? Like in this case the spark that was politics in the US but wow, so many things.

https://youtu.be/Dq3ZxMAZBXkAs for Last Requests … maybe let’s have less of them. Let’s not give up on things we think are going nowhere. Sometimes, we just have to give them one last chance to go and get there.

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

LISTEN TO THIS, GO ‘HEAD or WUTD TO DA RESCUE

Wow. I haven’t felt addicted to a song like this maybe since MGMT Electric Feel which took me back to all good things Prince (kind of excited to read the memoir that ain’t a memoir that’s all good). Or maybe, Childish Gambino and Redbone?

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for poetic, rhythmic, rhyming flow. I needed this especially after guiltily listening to Kanye’s new stuff (and ok, his flow is beautiful, as beautiful as he is offensively bad … but musically, there’s some beauty there).

This takes me back to DeLa Soul which is … you know, amazing, but especially on a Saturday in roller skates. Yessir.

https://youtu.be/213Z173FhME

Heard where? On a Bose headset commercial. All good. I’m good.

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

1990 or CHUBB-y ROCK

Wow. I love what Ambrosia For Heads has done for my days. It’s the only place to turn for hip hop scoop. And even within that magic #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for moments like this. That bring a forgotten voice back into a noisy scene and bring a clear smile to a gray-flecked face. Leggo Chubb Rock. Treat ‘Em Right still hangs as a mantra and a method for livin’. This joint is ’nuff said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIB6YNfZ4Y8

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

A CONTEST or STREAMING AT 500MM VIEWS

Don’t Google …. what’s the most streamed 90s song on Spotify? Actually, the most streamed song before 2000 on Spotify?

First person who gets it right…gets a gift with some redeemable monetary value commensurate with getting this right. Also, based on who you are, I’ll know whether you Googled it or not. 🙂 GO!

CONGRATULATIONS to Matt Corona for guessing correctly. Except with him, it’s never a guess. He just knows all musically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for random facts … and truths. Save me folks.

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

FOR WHAT IT”S WORTH

Thanks to an old friend, effectively a distant but still an older brother by deep familial ties, Sumeet Goel for sharing this song and this post. #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for what music can do when we stop to listen to what we’re listening to. His comment was that it is supremely relevant to our time, whatever side we’re on.

Lyrics. They’re why I’ve always found myself moved to and gravitating toward great folk, great hip hop, great music where the lyrics carry the song regardless of format and version (if a song can stand up to a single voice on an acoustic guitar, it is worth paying attention to in any form … thank you Andy Fox for that eternal lesson.)

No need to search for the lyrics, I’ve put ’em right here for you.

There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down


What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side


It’s s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down


Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away


We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful, Uncategorized

25 – FRENCH

Bring me … bring me a 25 … that hits you on all senses like this song. Go beat. Go lyrics. Go flow. Go … vid? Yes. The past few months, I’ve felt like i”m 21 again when it comes to music. Old enough to appreciate, but, young enough to not get caught up in the arrogance of opinion and taste and expectation. I mean, Unforgettable is Unforgettable for a reason.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for cadences like “I want your mind and your body / Don’t mind nobody / So as long you don’t never hurt nobody” <<<all that kills my favorite stuff from the late 80’s/early 90’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTFtOOh47oo

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

25’s

I’ve been in desperate need of some 25’s recently (quick refresher, a 25 is the optimal sound level to play music in my car, loud enough to drown me out). And I was super happy to stumble upon the following by Portugal, the Man. The NPR version is what introduced me and has me hooked but man, I dig the video too.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that these guys have been fighting the good fight for 10 years; I’ve benefitted greatly from this song the past week, and yes, I feel it still…

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

WHAT ARE YOUR 25’s?

I have about 12-15 minutes everyday where I am solo in the car. I mostly use that time for NPR. I have been crushing NPR since I started driving actually. But the news is all the same these days so I have started diving in on specific songs that I can turn up to 25 in our CRV. Perfect sound level. Because the speakers and my ears can handle it, and because it’s loud enough that I can’t hear myself sing. Which makes me sound great, like I am nailing every note. (Not happening.) What was my 25 today? Arguably my favorite song of all time for all reasons, and also, what Priya and I used for our first dance. #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for The Gap Band. Do you have a 25?

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

SAY UNCLE and MUSIC TORTURE

What song would break your spirits and have you cry mercy? I woke up to an NPR report this morning that Manuel Noriega had passed away. I’m old enough to remember him playing a starring role opposite Peter Jennings on ABC News. My family ate dinner together every night, from 6-7pm, with the ABC Local and then National News Broadcasts every evening. I realize more and more these days that I learned so much from even the ambient noise the news provided. I also learned that the most important time — quiet time — was from about 6:21-6:25 when they covered the weather forecast. With no internet around, if we missed that forecast, hell broke loose. Nevertheless, I digress. The biggest thing I think of when I think of Noriega is how we broke him with Rock music. Almost 30 years later, I wonder what songs would we be able to use to have our competitors cry uncle these days?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40090809

(Note: It’s also hard not to think of what Daryl went through on last season’s walking dead, listening to Easy Street over and over again.)

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for what I hope turns into a discussion around the most torturous songs ever written; knowing full well that my passion for pop of all sorts means that my iTunes playlist is probably torture for the rest of the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40090809?fbclid=IwAR0vGmAkrZtnBqx0woshX8LiVLnyvWyf63dWzkmTjcbY6b5Yhe_EkGZBf-o

Leave a comment

Filed under #iamgrateful #iamthankful

TMLFYI… | Microphone Fiendish

Today my love for you is…well look at the picture, feel the words, and hear the beat. ‘Nuff said.

Celebrating Life - Anaiya at Mike_edited-1 (1)

 

I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles, complicated
Cause I grabbed the mic and try to say, “yes, y’all”
They tried to take it, and say that I’m too small
Cool, cause I don’t get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug, then I jet
Back to the lab, without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To diss the opposite then ask if the brother’s done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don’t need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I’m raging, ripping up the stage and
Don’t it sound amazing cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, cause it’s sort of, an addiction
Magnetized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you’re stuck in
The mic is a Drano, volcanoes erupting
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in a code, so it can coincide
My thought’s a guide
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend Rakim
Spread the word, cause I’m in
E-F-F-E-C-T
A smooth operator operating correctly

But back to the problem, I gotta habit
You can’t solve it, silly rabbit
The prescription is a hypertone that’s thorough when
I fiend for a microphone like heroin
Soon as the bass kicks, I need a fix

Gimme a stage and a mic and a mix
And I’ll put you in a mood or is it a state of
Unawareness?
 Beware, it’s the re-animator

A menace to a microphone, a lethal weapon
An assassinator, if the people ain’t stepping
You see a part of me that you never seen
When I’m fiending for a microphone, I’m the microphone fiend

After 12, I’m worse than a Gremlin
Feed me hip-hop and I start trembling
The thrill of suspense is intense, you’re horrified
But this ain’t the cinemas or Tales From the Dark Side
By any means necessary, this is what has to be done
Make way cause here I come
My DJ cuts material
Grand imperial
It’s a must that I bust any mic you hand to me
It’s inherited, it runs in the family
I wrote the rhyme that broke the bull’s back
If that don’t slow ’em up, I carry a full pack
Now I don’t want to have to let off, you should have kept off
You didn’t keep the stage warm, step off
Ladies and gentleman, you’re about to see
A pastime, hobby about to be
Taken to the maximum, I can’t relax see, I’m
Hype as a hypochondriac cause the rap be one
Hell of a antidote, something you can’t smoke
More than dope, you’re trying to move away but you can’t, you’re broke
More than cracked up, you should have backed up
For those that act up need to be more than smacked up
Any entertainer, I got a torture chamber
One on one and I’m the remainder
So close your eyes and hold your breath
And I’mma hit ya with the blow of death
Before you go, you’ll remember the scene
The fiend of a microphone, I’m the microphone fiend
The microphone fiend

Leave a comment

Filed under #TMLFYI...