I like this thread, would hate to see it die.
Yeah, this thread is not only fun, but educational as well. I’ve discovered lots of good music here. So let’s keep it going.
I enjoyed your Soukous cut. Love the African music so let’s stay there with this cut from Ali Hassan Kuban.
Sorry,I think I have to go thumbs-down on Kuban. I lived in the Middle East long enough that my appreciation for Arabic music drifted downward, not upward. The two main defects of this particular piece are, the percussion dominates the melodic components, and the vocalist, who has probably had no voice training at all, chants rather than sings. Also, a little repetitious without much effort to add any flourishes.
Modern Chinese popular music, so far, gets almot no exposure in America, but has a huge audience. This video by Hebe, a singer from Taiwan, has 32-million hits, which exceeds the population of her country…
I was enjoying the first twenty seconds or so of the Hebe. The production really brought the stringed instrument (whatever it is) up in the mix, very distinct, cool sound. But then the singing just struck me as very forgettable adult-contemporary.
I’ve been wanting to share some World Party for a while. They (really “he”, I guess: it was at least originally a pseudonym for Karl Wallinger’s solo project) have a lot of great songs, but this is my favorite, from their 1986 debut album Ship of Fools:
World Party - “Hawaiian Island World”
It’s very lushly produced, borrows a nifty guitar sound from country (slide guitar, is it?), has all kinds of cool sounds in the mix, and features beautiful harmonies with a then-unknown 19 year old Sinead O’Connor, years before she released her own debut album. So I would love it even if (like the past couple songs shared in this thread) it were sung in a language I didn’t understand. But maybe my favorite thing of all about the song is this stanza of lyrics, which seems all the more apropos in the angry political age we now inhabit:
Where do you find these professionally produced music videos that have only a few hundred views? They are certainly worth more than that, although personlly the music does not appeal to me. I love the idea of an arrangement that is nor force-fed theorugh the Sony monopoly. But I have a good enough sens of rhythm that I don;t need a high-gain metronome playing throughout. As for the singer, like before, just reading a lyric with an untrained monotone doesn’t cut it. The qualities you like seem to be the lyrics, which is no doubt good poetry, but even great poetry read badly does not by itself make quality music.
Next, no matter how long you live, you will always keep finding hidden gems. I can’t stop listening to this, I sent it to my sister, she loves it too. Beautiful woman, amazing voice, awesome stage presence, just a mind blower hidden under a rock in Switzerland:
This is a great live performance, and the lead singer makes it look effortless for her, but not - I’d guess - for anyone else.
Quite a lot of power in her upper range too.
It kind of reminds me of the real spirit of folk/country music, instead of the stadium country stuff that you get now, its this direct connection to the audience that makes it what it is, I hesitate to use the term ‘peoples music’ but really that’s pretty much what it is - albeit very skilful.
I’ll offer you a bit of prog/classic with the voice of Annie Haslam
I’m not a musician, so I have no way to judge how “good” this is, as a classical performance. But I didn’t hear anything bad. Atonal compositions always used to make me flaill for the reject button, but decades of exposure to Bollywood and other disciplines has mellowed me on that. There were times toward the end when I thought this selection was going to drift into formulaic rock, but thankfully, skirted around the edge. I like my vocalists a little smoother, but Annie still OK. I gave it the whole 11 minutes, which I was afraid I’d regret, but it did actually grow on me and I could listen to it again. Thanks for the introduction to a genre I was not very aware of.
Next: In the 50s, I started catching on to Blues, and Jimmy Reed was my fav. He somehow found a way to Carnegie Hall (without practice practice practice). I understand that he showed up so stoned, his audible wife was next to him on the stage, keeping him on task and coaxing the correct lyrics out of him. So here’s my nomination for the greatest blues singer ever, Jimmy Reed:
There’s an old saying that “you’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts”. Your appreciation, or lack thereof, of a song is your prerogative. De gustibus non est disputandum. But you are saying things here that are just factually incorrect. “The qualities you like seem to be the lyrics”? Well, I guess you missed this part:
In fact, I’d go further and say I’d love it even if there were no lyrics in any language. I would miss the harmonies with Sinead (how is that “monotone”?!?), but I was sold on the song in the first 50 seconds, all instrumental; and then there’s the beautiful 30 second interlude of choral voices, no words, starting at 2:22. Again, not understanding how that any of that can fit the description you gave of the song (which sounds a lot more like Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”). I almost wonder if you somehow got misdirected to a different song altogether, as you also described it as a “professionally produced music video” when there is no video at all, just music and a still image anyone could produce on a PC or probably even a smartphone. 
I guess you forgot this part:
I meant that the video was a vehicle for a professionally-produced studio recording, as are nearly all YouTube videos… We’re just talking about the music here, right?
So…if someone says “I really love A, B, C, D, and E, but maybe best of all is F”, you read that as “you just like F”? Uhhh…ok.
I still don’t understand what you are getting at with your “professionally produced” talk. The song was from an album produced by a major record label (Chrysalis Records, which no longer exists but at the time was the home of big names like Blondie and Huey Lewis and the News). This particular album, as it happens, just cracked the Billboard Top 40, peaking at #39 in 1987. So, yes: of course it was professionally produced. Is that what you mean?
I guess I misunderstood the intent of this thread. I’m sorry I revived it.
I’ve read only the first two pages, and then from post #228 onward.
Also lost track of what the last song was to comment on, so I might as well start afresh.
And because I haven’t read whole thread, I’m crossing fingers there’s been no mention of the wild and crazy sounds of Captain Beefheart. To best describe his sonic whackiness, I best quote wikipedia: “…[integrating] blues, rock, psychedelia, and jazz with contemporary experimental compostition and the avant-garde”. That’s about as in-a-nutshell as it can be put, I guess.
The following number, “When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy”, is off his “Shiny Beast” album, which most Beefheart freaks will dismiss as too accessible (they’re usually like “go ‘Trout’ or ‘Decals’ or go home” kinda thing - referring to earlier releases). Well, I say “phoo-hoo” to all that (pardon the inappropriate language, there); it might be my favourite, although I really super-duper like “Doc” and “Crow” too.
Detractors diss him as a Howling Wolf rip-off, but other than the similarity in voice, they couldn’t be more different to one another than, say, Pauly Shore and bon vivant Spiro Agnew.
I love (but I’ll wager 97% dopers won’t) how this tune kinda lumbers along in a way that reminds me of a New Orleans processional march. When CB comes in with the “Oh Whoa” I just…I’m in…CB-Land. Love how there’s a false stop only seven seconds in.
Coolest lyrics, like, “And the wind in my hand blows away like a feather”, and maybe the coolest five-word lyric phrase I ever, ever, ever come across: “Like breath on a mirror” - evocative as all-get-out.
If you’re unfamiliar with this stuff, could be a bit of a jolt, but definitely worth a whirl:
The Captain Beefheart was really cool. I have heard the name a number of times over the years, and I had a vague sense that it was in the vein of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (which Wikipedia confirms was at least somewhat accurate). But I never knew anyone personally who listened to Beefheart; it obviously wasn’t played on the radio; and I think when I did use to hear about him, it was before the era when you could just type something into your computer and hear a sample.
So I’m really glad that you jogged my memory of this being something I should look into. I actually like it a lot better than Zappa, and I’m now interested in trying the album Wikipedia says is the most critically acclaimed, something about trout. (I’m hoping his albums are actually on Apple Music and I’m just running into a glitch, because right now when I search, it doesn’t pull up anything but also doesn’t say “nothing found”. It just hangs up.)
Anyway, about the song itself: I don’t do drugs that often anymore, but the next time I do, I definitely want to listen to that again! I’m wondering now if Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel fame is a Beefheart fan. The use of horns there in particular seems similar (although as you say, both could just be riffing on Dixieland jazz).
So you thought, what, that it was only for unsigned acts? Or at least acts that didn’t make the Billboard Hot 100? No, not the case as far as I ever understood it.
And I don’t know why you’d be sorry, but if it makes you feel better, you *didn’t *revive the thread. It has always had periods of a few weeks without posts, but in any case I posted a few hours before you did.
Now, my contribution: “Madame George” by Van Morrison. It’s the best track from the 1968 album Astral Weeks, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of all time, but which nevertheless has never been a big seller, and this long track has never really gotten significant radio play. But the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame features it in its exhibit “500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll”. I could try to explain why I love this song so much, but I’ll just quote others with whom I agree:
Lester Bangs: “[T]he album’s whirlpool. Possibly one of the most compassionate pieces of music ever made”
Rolling Stone: “The crowning touch is ‘Madame George’, a cryptic character study…that is certainly as heartbreaking a reverie as you will find in pop music.”
And then there’s Morrison himself, per Wikipedia:
hopefully not derailing too much here:
You mean the fucking vacuum cleaners from “Two Nuns and a Pack Mule” were on the back of your jacket for 20 years?
Dude - that’s still in my top ten all-time records. I could out-write Homer on that album.
Above rad.
Well, I guess I’ll agree with the crazy comparisons part;)
Especially early H.D. - I’m having a hard time with that:o
And to get back on track:
Huh - never heard this one before - was only familiar with his more well-known numbers. Thanks for the introduction. A powerful tune.
The love’s to love the love’s to love the love’s to love…
At the top of the song’s wikipedia page, it says there’s a string quartet in this, but when you look further down, all the string arrangements are by one guy (Larry Fallon), so I don’t know if that means he just wrote it (and brought in a quartet to play it), or, if he played all the instruments, one track at a time? I raise the question because there’s some spectacular violin playing throughout, weaving in and out as a strong melodic counterpoint.
Funny - if there’s the lyric “In the corner playing dominoes in drag/The one and only Madame George”, then I wonder why VM is so apparently cagey(?) about acknowledging MG as a transvestite?
I’ll go with an Elvis Costello song, which in a way feels futile, considering he needs to be offered up, oh, about 30 songs.
“From a Whisper to a Scream”, off his “Trust” album, is about as upbeat as they come. Apparently NASA tests indicate the physical impossibility of keeping the toes from tapping or the head from bobbing for the entirety of this song. Great trade-off vocals with someone I’m not familiar with - Glen Tillbrook.
Interesting. In that same wiki entry, it says the strings were the only overdub, so I suppose he could have played them all separately.
Glad you liked it! It took many years before I caught up to it myself. For a long time I just thought of Morrison as the “Brown Eyed Girl” guy. (I suppose I had heard a few others too, like “Tupelo Honey” and “Domino”.) Then in the '90s I became familiar with “T.B. Sheets” and “Into the Mystic”, and would have had trouble deciding which of those was my favorite tune of his, with “Who Drove the Red Sports Car” holding onto a solid third place. But then about five years ago I heard “Madame George” and that took over. It still manages to be a strangely obscure song, even after the Hall of Fame thing and Morrison himself naming it (at least as of 1974) as his favorite. Just last year he released a compilation called The Essential Van Morrison, and it’s not one of the 38 tracks featured! Sheesh. That title is false advertising, if you ask me.
I didn’t catch that H.D./R.E.M. comparison earlier. I have trouble with it too, except for of course their both being '80s “college music”.
Elvis Costello does indeed have so many great songs. I do wish I had never learned that he said that horribly offensive thing about Ray Charles–or better yet, that he had never said it.
I was not familiar with this “Trust” album, even though it is from the prime of his career. It was interesting to read your writeup, specifically “Great trade-off vocals with someone I’m not familiar with - Glen Tillbrook”. I thought to myself reading that “yeah, that name doesn’t ring a bell”. But then when I played it, I was instantly like “whoa, hang on–that’s got to be the lead singer of Squeeze!” And looking it up, that is indeed his name, which I had not known before. You know '80s alternative music but not Squeeze? How did that happen? (I guess I’m assuming you couldn’t have heard Squeeze before yet not recognize the distinctive vocals.)
I will hold off on posting another track so soon after my last one; just wanted to converse about those matters. 
I don’t have a new track to add right now, but:
Hehehe, no, it was the matchbox from Atomizer. I thought about the vacuum cleaners from “Two Nuns and a Pack Mule” or the car from the cover of “Racer X” for the jacket that replaced it, but eventually just went with an oni.
Yes, this.
Ah, the oni option.
Yeah, “Racer X” woulda worked. To choose from Big Black, I’d have gone with the wonderfully projectile-eyed, fleshy Savage Pencil ragamuffin-whatever-the-fuck-it-is on the “Headache” EP. (felt cool owning the tape, which - as tapes always did - had extra tracks). Glad it replaced the ep’s previous cover - autopsy pic of dude’s head split wide open from self-inflicted gun shot.
Well shiver-me-Randolph Mantooth, the last three posters didn’t post anything?
Ok - I’ll post something, thenz…
Curious as to how much this’ll go over like a lead balloon - they’re fast, they’re heavy, they’re insanely technical, those bud-worshipping death-grinders from Colorado - Cephalic Carnage.
Lol if melody is important to you, I’d avoid the following like a swarm of Asian giant hornets. If you’re open to extremely dissonant, atonal guitar work and the satan-given gift that the drummer John Merryman is, it should make for quite tolerable listening.
Also - if discerning lyrics are another priority, then the gurgle-grind effects on the vocalist might not make your day.
The way they’re often playing around each other - almost like a battle of different time signatures! - and then boom they stop on a dime at the end of, say, a 32nd bar.
Seeing these fuckers do this live (twice) is nothing short of the Third or maybe Fourth Coming of Norman Fell. Tight as Fuck - exactly as they do it on the album:
I’ll handle this one, but then I’m a fan of the band and of this style of music in general. This song is tight, has amusingly ordinary lyrics considering the overall sound being made here and is very well produced. I like how they avoid too much compression on the drums and how the vocals are very clear in the mix. I found the song carried itself well despite a lack of any obvious groove and particularly enjoyed the speed up-slow down-speed up part at about 2:25.
My pick is a tune that lit up the internet over the winter. With it’s insistent beat and ultra-heavy version of '80s synth funk backing up a terrific rap and powerful hooks, here’s Kamaiyah - How Does It Feel.
No one wants to get on the Kamayiah bandwagon, eh?
Okay, let’s try this then: combine varying parts of electronic music, krautrock, roots rock and spacy psychedelia with a canny sense of minimalism and groove and then turn it up to eleven to make sure it blasts it’s way into yer brain and you get Jenks Miller’s Horseback - Modern Pull.