All posts by Hallgeir

The Saddest Songs in History: Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson Alexandra Leaving

May 5, 2014 Hallgeir 4 Comments

Alexandra Leaving

The Saddest Songs in History: Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson Alexandra Leaving

Leonard Cohen is a first class melancholic and he has quite a lot of songs that could fit in the “sad song” category. I’ve chosen a lament of lost love, actually it’s about lost love twice(!). It is even harder the second time, because he had given up on that whole “love stuff”. And when I say love, I include lust and desire of course. Sharon Robins is credited as co-writer on this song and her contribution must not be understated.

In concerts, Cohen speaks the opening words of a poem-song he wrote three decades ago, inspired by another poem published in 1911. He reads some lines from his own text and then says, “Sharon Robinson, ‘Alexandra Leaving’.” (I have never heard a live version where Cohen sings the song himself, if it exists I would be very thankful to get a link in the commentaries.)

Back to the songs meaning.

Alexandra Leaving on Spotify:

It sounds like the protagonist in the song didn’t plan to love/make love again, but it happened. Now he has to face the devastating loss all over again.
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Film, Rolling Stones

Video of the day: The Rolling Stones Cocksucker Blues

May 2, 2014 Hallgeir 2 Comments

CocksuckerBlues_crop

“Definitely one of the best movies about rock and roll I’ve ever seen. It makes you think being a rock and roll star is one of the last things you’d ever want to do.”
– Jim Jarmuch

Cocksucker Blues is named after a notorious Stones recording – just piano and singer Mick Jagger, in X-rated lonely-boy agony – that the band submitted as a final fuck-you single to their original, despised British label, Decca. (It was rejected.) The song, heard early in Frank’s movie, is blunt and drab.
– David Fricke (Rolling Stone Magazine)

The tale of Cocksucker Blues is as sordid as its title.

Cocksucker Blues is a film by photographer Robert Frank on the Rolling Stone’s 1972 American tour. Not released officially by the Stones… the film is chronicling The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972 in support of their album Exile on Main St.

Bootlegs – the only way I was able to encounter a copy – have circulated for years.

cocksuckerblues
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Playlist

Playlist for April 2014

May 1, 2014 Hallgeir

playlist April 2014
We started a new series in January/February were we presented some of the songs we’ve played during the months that had passed. This is our playlist for April 2014, as usual it has something new and a few golden oldies.

Also check out our previous playlists:

The Album I’ve played most in April 2014 is, Looking Into You – A Tribute to Jackson Browne.

Among all new songs, the new First Aid Kit track, My Silver Lining have been played most.

First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining (acoustic Sessions, Ladygun, 2014):

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Country, George Jones, The Best Songs

The Saddest Songs in History: George Jones If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)

April 28, 2014 Hallgeir 6 Comments

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The Saddest Songs in History: George Jones If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)

If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will) is written by Harlan Sanders and Rick Beresford, and recorded by American country music artist George Jones. It was released in January 1981 as the third single from his album I Am What I Am (my favorite Jones album!). The song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.

If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will) at Spotify:

When George Jones was divorced from Tammy Wynette in 1975, he went on an epic binge, an excess in cocaine and alcohol. His albums continued to sell ok and his singles were on the charts, he actually recorded some of his most popular songs between 1975 and 1980, but George was a wreck on a personal level.

He started cancelling concerts in large numbers and he got the un-flattering nick name, “No Show Jones”. George Jones went into rehab at a psychiatric hospital in Muscle Shoals. Thank God for that, it was the start of what would be his best record. It is a dark album, full of heartbreak and drinking, good melodies and the velvet voice of the restrained, but strong Mr. Jones.

George Jones – If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will), live:

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Bob Dylan, Music Calendar

April 27 in music history

April 27, 2014 Hallgeir


Today: Bob Dylan The 15th Infidels recording session in 1983 (read more) …I did the album, and I call it that, but what it means is for other people to interpret, you know, if it means something to them. Infidels is a word that’s in the dictionary and whoever it applies to… to everybody on the album, every character. Maybe it’s all about infidels. ~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder in March 1984)
The 3rd Street-Legal session, 27 April 1978 (read more) ..“On this album, I took a few steps backward, but I also took a bunch of steps forward because I had a lot of time to concentrate on it. I also had the band sounding like I want it to sound. It’s got that organ sound from ‘Blonde on Blonde’ again. That’s something that has been missing.” ~Bob Dylan (to Robert Hilburn – May 1978)
Ann Peebles (born April 27, 1947) is an African American singer-songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label. Two of her most popular songs are “I Can’t Stand the Rain” and “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”, which she wrote with her husband, Don Bryant, and radio broadcaster Bernard “Bernie” Miller and were subsequently popularized in cover versions by, among others, Eruption (1978) and Paul Young (1984), respectively.
Henry’s Dream is the seventh album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released 27th April 1992.This album remains a big favourite among Bad Seeds fans, although Nick Cave himself was reportedly unhappy with the production by David Briggs. Briggs preferred a “live-in-the-studio” method he had used with Neil Young. This led to Cave and Mick Harvey re-mixing the album, and ultimately to the Live Seeds recordings, as Cave wanted the songs “done justice”.
Trampin’ is an album by Patti Smith, released April 27, 2004. It was the first album Smith released on the Columbia Records label.Rolling Stone magazine placed the record on its list of “The Top 50 Albums of 2004”
Dance to the Music is the second studio album by funk/soul band Sly and the Family Stone, released April 27, 1968 on Epic/CBS Records. It contains the Top Ten hit single of the same name, which was influential in the formation and popularization of the musical subgenre of psychedelic soul and helped lay the groundwork for the development of funk music.
Gordon Haskell (born 27 April 1946, in Verwood, England) is a Pop, Rock & Blues music vocalist, songwriter, and bassist. He first gained recognition as a member of the British band Les Fleur de Lys. He sang on one of the songs of King Crimson‘s second album, then played bass and sang on their third album. After departing from King Crimson, he continued his musical career as a solo musician & gained international recognition in 2001 with his hit song How Wonderful You Are.
Love Me Do is the Beatles‘ first ever single, backed by “P.S. I Love You“. When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1962, it peaked at No. 17; in 1982 it was re-promoted (not re-issued, retaining the same catalogue number) and reached No. 4. In the United States the single was a No. 1 hit in 1964. It was released 27 April 1964 in the US.