fun

Funk Friday: “Down In The Valley,” Otis Redding

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I have been saving this song for a very special day.  Today is such a day.  It doesn’t matter why today is special – who really cares – but let’s dig into the song.

This is one of those songs that I would consider to be absolutely perfectly constructed.  What is a song composed of?  I would posit (because I love to posit) three things: tempo, melody, and rhythm.  First of all: the tempo.  The tempo is absolutely right on the money.  It’s slow enough to give it a real sultry groove, but it’s fast enough that you want to get out of your chair and dance to it.  Secondly: melody.  This song has a simple enough melody that you can remember it after you hear it once, and then sing along with it the next time it comes on.  It’s also just intoxicatingly bluesy.  And third: rhythm.  The rhythm of this song is straight up four-square, meat-and-two-vegetables, staple-diet stuff.  It musical bedrock.

So why in the world is such a song, with such simple bones, so extraordinary?  Obviously part of it is Redding’s voice, that manages to be so gritty and on pitch at the same time.  Another part is the strategic use of – yeah, you guessed it – horns.  But for me, it’s how everything drops away before the next verse.  What do I mean?  I mean that the song starts with Redding singing alone.  He sings a verse.  Before he asks us whether we’ve ever been lonely (lo-oh-oh-oh-ohnly), it’s just him and the drums – and then the horns come it.  And god help me when Redding can’t help himself at 1:03 (“ooh yeah”) – he knows it’s cooking.  It just keeps building until we can’t take it.  And then what happens?  The guitar lick at 1:58, straight out of a Temptations song – and then song slips into minor.

It’s just…man.  I just can’t even.  This is like the Hope Diamond of songs for me.

 

Worldly Wednesday: “Csiki, Csiki,” BraAgas

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Clearly my soul is wandering around the planet without permission because, while I started the week being homesick for New England, now I find myself longing to be back in Prague.  Fortunately, the wonderful female group BraAgas has me covered.  This saucy little minx of a song is from their 2009 album, “Tapas,” which won the Anděl Award, the Czech version of a Grammy.  In addition to world music, BraAgas is also proficient in medieval music – one of their members plays the shawm, which, I mean, if there is a more direct way to my heart, I haven’t found it yet.

Lyrics (which I’m pretty sure are in Romani) below.

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Adjatok egy szalmaszálat,
Égessem el a világot!
Adjatok egy szalmaszálat,
Hadd fújjam fel ezt a házat!
Lábam termett a táncra,
Szemem a kacsintásra.
Ha táncolok, szikrát szórok,
A világra fittyet hányok!

Aj Csiki-Csiki, aj ke te merav,
Aj Csiki-Csiki, aj ke te merav,
Aj Csiki-Csiki, aj ke te merav,
Me zhanav me ka zhivav

Vesz ő nékem selyemruhát,
Gyöngyöt, láncot, piros szoknyát,
Reám költi a vagyonát,
Lopja-lopja édesanyját,
Bolondítom, hevítem,
Kiáltozza a nevem,
Csiki-Csiki, így hív engem.
Megöllek én, szép szerelmem!

Aj Csiki-Csiki, aj ke te merav,
Aj Csiki-Csiki, aj ke te merav,
Aj Csiki-Csiki, aj ke te merav,
Me zhanav me ka zhivav

Lábam termett a táncra,
Szemem a kacsintásra.
Ha táncolok, szikrát szórok,
A világra fittyet hányok!
Bolondítom, hevítem,
Kiáltozza a nevem,
Csiki-Csiki, így hív engem,
Megöllek én szép szerelmem!

Aj Chiki-Chiki, aj ke te merav,
Aj Chiki-Chiki-Chiki, aj ke te merav,
Aj Chiki-Chiki, aj ke te merav,
Me zhanav me ka zhivav

Give me a piece of straw to set the world on fire
give me a piece of straw to blow up this house

My feet were made for dancing
my eyes were made for winking
when i dance I spread sparkles all around
and don’t give a damn about the world

Ai,Tchiki-Tchiki, i should die
Ai,Tchiki-Tchiki, i should die
Ai,Tchiki-Tchiki, i should die
I know I’m going to live

Ai,Tchiki-Tchiki, he dies for me
Ai,Tchiki-Tchiki, this is how he calls me
Ai,Tchiki-Tchiki, this is how he calls me,
With me, he go where I want

He will buy me a dress of silk, necklace of pearls, red skirt,
he’ll spend his fortune on me
he will steal his mother again and again
and I make him crazy, I set him on fire

He only shouts my name
tchiki tchiki – that’s what he calls me
I will kill you my beautiful love !

Salubrious Saturday: “Ghostwriter,” RJD2

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I’m going to go out on a limb here with you good readers and suggest a hypothetical.  Press play on that video and come with me for a mental walk.

Your week was, shall we say, lame.  You didn’t get a whole ton of stuff done at work a) because your boss gave you weird tasks with non-deadline deadlines, and b) people kept stopping by your office every ten minutes to talk.  Because of the non-deadline deadlines (or NDDs), and the convivial bonhomie of your colleagues’ interruptions, you were in a good enough mood that you didn’t really fire up the ol’ engine but coasted in neutral, taking advantage of a rare bit of calm.  You got to work at a reasonable time, you left at a reasonable time.  It was all very…reasonable.

What did you do with your free time?  Well, in this rare moment of calm (or RMOC), you decided to indulge in your favorite suite of activities: a blended purée of Buzzfeed personality quizzes, reading a few more chapters of the six-pound historical fiction novel you (for some reason) decided to buy at one point, more Buzzfeed personality quizzes, an amusing animal meme or two that you dutifully posted to a friend’s Facebook page, looking at colors to paint your bedroom, and puttering around the kitchen considering why you have so many cookbooks when really all you eat is butternut squash ravioli and BabyBel cheese rounds.

Did you see friends?  Yeah, more or less, when you weren’t looking at photos of cats with melon rinds on their heads.  Did you exercise?  Well, you took the stairs and walked a lot.

So, to summarize: you worked an average amount, accomplished average tasks in an average way, and did average things in your average amount of free time.

And now, it’s Saturday, and what’s your overwhelming feeling?  “Aw the hell with this – average is the enemy of awesome.  I need to do something.”  And that, my friend, is what Saturday was made for.

If you pressed play when you started reading this then right…about……now those horns at 1:30 should have kicked in.  So kick yourself in the ass and get outside.  I’ll meet you there.

Funk Friday: “Joyful Noise,” Breakestra

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Funk Friday in spring?  With the funkiest band this side of California?  Yes please.

I’m sending this groove-tastic track to all of you Tune-Up fans from around the world.  Did you know you represent five continents?  You all tune in from 18 different countries – from Brazil to Germany to Singapore and back again.  That’s amazing.  I am so happy, grateful, and excited to share music with you all.  So crank it up!  Let’s have ourselves an international dance party!  Make a joyful noise and groove on, Tune-Up fans.  Groove on.

Worldly Wednesday: “Sounds Like Gun (Kepei),” Bobby

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This awesome song, by an artist named Bobby, is from Sierra Leone, where hails another incredible human being: 15-year-old Kelvin Doe.  Kelvin is an inventor, a total autodidact, whose mental agility and curiosity are jaw-dropping.  Thanks to the work of a man named David Sengeh, a PhD student at MIT, kids like Kelvin in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and South Africa are getting mentored to develop their skills – all with an eye towards helping young minds around the world find solutions to their country’s problems.  People, Tune-Up fans – people are our biggest resource.

Kelvin’s story is here.  It’s ten minutes.  It’s worth it.  And if you want to know more about Sengeh’s campaign, go here.

 

Termagant Tuesday: “Ghost of Stephen Foster,” Squirrel Nut Zippers

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Sorrysorrysorrysorry, Tune-Up Fans, I know I’m a little late.  Have a zippy Zippers track.  This is probably my favorite Zippers song because it just so very, very weird and unsettling and just sort of, “…what?”  I mean, “Camptown ladies never sang all the doo-dah day, no no no.”  Well, sure…I mean…yes?  They didn’t?   Wait.  That doesn’t make sense.  I’m so confused.  And yet…I’m dancing!  Whee!

REMIX WEEK! Salubrious Saturday: “Ain’t That Good News,” Sam Cooke meets Les Paul and Jeff Beck

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I absolutely like the original better than this version, but I have to testify to Paul’s and Beck’s smokin’ guitar work.  (And as my baby is in fact coming home tomorrow, I really had no choice but to post this song).  It gives an already rocking song a spicy southern, bluesy, rockabilly twang.  It also has a nice build-up.  But tinkering with Sam Cooke is the textbook example of gilding the lily.  The original is pure uncomplicated happiness – probably because the instrumentation doesn’t rely on so many dominant seventh chords (not sure what that means?  It’s the horn’s chord at 1:01 and 1:50, among other places.  More on this here) but allows Sam to go there with his own voice.  And those horns.  I mean, come on.  Without further ado, here is the man himself.

REMIX WEEK! Funk Friday: “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head,” Kylie Minogue meets Patrick and Eugene

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Oh my sweet, sweet readers, I feel badly about pulling such a fast one on you like this.  I bet you were expecting a funk cover of a non-funk song, or a funk-oriented remix or mash-up.

YOINK!

I had a lot of options to choose from, lest you incorrectly assume a paucity of musical ideas.  Au contraire.  It’s just…well, let me put it this way.  A good re-working of a song is like seeing an actor do a particularly fine job portraying a character: you can’t so easily see that person’s face and not think of the emotions their character made you feel.  So too with this song.  I adored Kylie’s song when it came out.  It was slick, sexy, and had a great beat.  …Then I heard this version.  And poof!  Bye, Kylie, thanks for trying.  For better or for worse, Patrick and Eugene’s bizarro-world, klezmer carnival version supplanted the original.  It’s possible the reason is – and this really is a curse, let me tell you – I tend to be way more interested in things that are weird than I am things that are easy.  Kylie’s song was a very well-constructed, well-packaged, dull song.  Standard girl-sees-boy, girl-wants-boy fare.  P and E’s version is unsettling, difficult to read, and absolutely hilarious (I had a really hard time mood-tagging this one).  When they get to the “stay forever and ever” lyric, I feel oddly compelled to shout “IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN OR ELSE IT GETS THE HOSE AGAIN.”*  Like I said: it’s a curse, being more interested in weird things.

*”Silence of the Lambs” reference?  Anyone?  …Anyone?

Original song here:

REMIX WEEK! Termagant Tuesday: “Suit and Tie,” Justin Timberlake meets The Stepkids

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I won’t lie – I’m not the biggest Justin Timberlake fan anyway.  I think he’s a great vocalist and a great dancer, but his songs…meh.  I am a big fan of barbershop-style harmonizations and jazz covers of pop songs.  The Stepkids bring some Tony Bennett and Rat Pack-era Sinatra to an otherwise bland pop song; the guitarist even throws in a “Sweet Georgia Brown” lick at 2:56.  They also look like accountants having a blast.  And – it honestly sounds like this is the original song, and Timberlake covered it.  Dig it.

Original Timberlake song:

REMIX WEEK! Modernism Monday: “Call Me A Hole,” Nine Inch Nails vs. Carly Rae Jepsen

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This week on the Tune-Up will be devoted to mash-ups, remixes, and covers of other songs.  A good cover or mash-up can elevate the song to a whole other level – it’s a real bit of genius.  One of the best mash-ups I have ever heard is today’s offering.  The DJ pomDeter took the music of that ear worm “Call Me Maybe” and layered the lyrics of Nine Inch Nails’s “Head Like A Hole” on top.  The result is just brilliant.  The lyrics are all about the corrupting influence of money on society.  What better backing than that utterly fake, lab-created song?  I’ve listened to this a hundred times at least and it still thrills me.

Original “Head Like A Hole” here:

Original “Call Me Maybe” here: