Last music video you watched.

[Richard A]

LOL I hadn't heard of this, but I like it!

[g-one]

Hmm. If the city doesn't exist, does the Kinderchor?

I was kind of hoping it would be little chickens.

[Lianachan]

Right, this isn’t a video as such - just a song with a picture. But it’s on YouTube, and our kitchen Alexa played it while Mrs Lianachan and I were preparing stuff for dinner. Anyway, there’s an argument to be settled/opinions to be sought.

If you have about 6 minutes, have a listen to this - you really need to hear all of it, and clearly btw.

Watch on youtube.com

OK. Well, my better half is a keen Prince enthusiast and has been since about 1985. She’s accompanied me to many of his concerts and parties over the years. But... she hates this song. I love it. It was recorded in 1986 but was never released by Prince while he was alive. It appeared on the special edition reissue of his Sign ‘o’ The Times album in 2020, with dozens of other unreleased songs.

Her concerns (and my counter arguments in brackets):

Pitch-shifted vocals that sound weird (it was recorded for an album of pitch-shifted stuff he never released, but hits like U Got The Look were for that too)
Indecipherable lyrics (yeah, that’s true)
Lyrics that can be made out are surreal (also true, but I don’t think that’s a problem)
Prince never released it (this is an amazing thing for me, he had totally finished songs of this quality just filed away!)

What I like about it:

There is a tick..tock that runs through it. The song has a few false endings, but as long as you hear the tick-tock you know there’s more coming.
The weird singing and lyrics don’t last long, it’s a least half an instrumental .
And what an instrumental! Unbelievable guitar soloing all through, possibly the best he ever did in the studio (as opposed to live).
The guy played all of the instruments and recorded, produced and mixed this, on his own, in his house.

So, if anybody has given it a listen I’d be interested to hear your reviews.

ETA - incidentally, this song always had an air of mystique about it. I had (and have) literally hundreds of unreleased Prince songs, but this one wasn’t circulating - nobody had it. So I knew the title, I had about a 1 min sample of it, but until 2020 nobody had heard this song (and I was well connected too).

[Lianachan]

Nae’b’dy?

[Richard A]

Moral of the story: don't ever try to play hardball with a band - they can play harder. A colleague of mine uses this on her marketing courses.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

[Arneb]

Nae’b’dy?

My thoughts: It is a great song, quirky, a bit out of whack, a quick flick-of-the-wrist rhapsody by a virtuoso at the peak of his art. Maybe not one of the great works he put every bit of effort into - but still a heavy demonstration of raw skill that will have a lesser musician puffing and heaving. You remember the scene in Amadeus where young Mozart humiliates Salieri by just going over one of his hard-won compositions, thrashing it to pieces and then improving it on the spot? That level of skill.

Re your wife's points:
- I have no problem with surreal lyrics, like, at all. But, I'm a guy who goes off on pieces like this, so what do I know of realistic lyrics?
- Come to think of it, I have no problem with indecipherable lyrics, either. No non-English native kid has. You see, every one in the non-English native world grew up on English-lyrics pop music. We none of us ever made out the lyrics before we became fluent in English, which for a lot of us means, never. So, peace on on that, too.
- Pitch-shifted vocals? I listen to music for prepared piano. Next?
- The non-release? I have three volumes of scores of Schubert piano Sonatas, given to me as a birthday present by my beloved godfather. Volume 3, unfinished and unpublished works, is as thick as the other two combined. You can rest your case.

Re. your points
- False endings are cool anyway. You may want to listen to a the first movement of a Bruckner symphony here. The way he builds up the pressure to a climax only to give you a severe case of coitus interruptus can be hard, but it's great technique. Especially if we get our explosion just a bit later.
- I hadn't minded the lyrics to run through the entire song, see above.
- What an instrumental indeed!
- I admire competence. I admire skill. I admire virtuosity. At that level of virtuosity, everything is a great work, even if it is not my kind of music.

[Richard A]

Talking of indecipherable lyrics, one of the great responses, on this issue whatever people might think of the musical side, was a German entry to Eurovision many years ago. She performed the song principally in German but with the refrain repeated in both English and Dutch. Then an extended version had it in French as well. But then Eurovision shows what we should have known a long time ago: you don’t always have to understand the lyrics to enjoy the song. Not just on that fest either: there are songs which I suspect, of this group, only Lianachan can understand which I still enjoy.

[Lianachan]

Nae’b’dy?

My thoughts: It is a great song, quirky, a bit out of whack, a quick flick-of-the-wrist rhapsody by a virtuoso at the peak of his art. Maybe not one of the great works he put every bit of effort into - but still a heavy demonstration of raw skill that will have a lesser musician puffing and heaving. You remember the scene in Amadeus where young Mozart humiliates Salieri by just going over one of his hard-won compositions, thrashing it to pieces and then improving it on the spot? That level of skill.

Re your wife's points:
- I have no problem with surreal lyrics, like, at all. But, I'm a guy who goes off on pieces like this, so what do I know of realistic lyrics?
- Come to think of it, I have no problem with indecipherable lyrics, either. No non-English native kid has. You see, every one in the non-English native world grew up on English-lyrics pop music. We none of us ever made out the lyrics before we became fluent in English, which for a lot of us means, never. So, peace on on that, too.
- Pitch-shifted vocals? I listen to music for prepared piano. Next?
- The non-release? I have three volumes of scores of Schubert piano Sonatas, given to me as a birthday present by my beloved godfather. Volume 3, unfinished and unpublished works, is as thick as the other two combined. You can rest your case.

Re. your points
- False endings are cool anyway. You may want to listen to a the first movement of a Bruckner symphony here. The way he builds up the pressure to a climax only to give you a severe case of coitus interruptus can be hard, but it's great technique. Especially if we get our explosion just a bit later.
- I hadn't minded the lyrics to run through the entire song, see above.
- What an instrumental indeed!
- I admire competence. I admire skill. I admire virtuosity. At that level of virtuosity, everything is a great work, even if it is not my kind of music.

Ah... thanks for a detailed response. Especially one largely in agreement with me, as is only right, proper and correct. I shall check your links when I’m on the PC. Aye.... it’s a weird song. I agree 100% with you about appreciating talent even if the music isn’t to taste. Among my oldest friends is the world’s best jazz guitarist, for Christ’s sake.

[g-one]

Somehow I had missed that U2 had reworked these lyrics in honour of the orange disaster:

Suit and tie comes up to me
Face orange as a rose on a thorn bush
Skin as thin as orange crush
And he’s peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred
Two hundred

I can see those fighter planes

I can see those fighter planes

WMD in their veins

Ground shakes but the children can’t weep
Vaporized in a single tweet
The emperor rises from his golden throne
Never knowing, never BEING known
The lights are on, the president’s home
Oh my god, I’ve never felt so alone
Outside it’s America
Outside it’s America

song starts about 20sec. in

Watch on youtube.com

[Lance]

Cyndi, Karen, and I went to see Tommy James and the Shondells last night live.

Does that count?

(It was fucking AWESOME!!!)

[Arneb]

Over here, things look far more pedestrian. Son II recently discovered it, and couldn't stop giggling. And, even if it was for the umpteenth time, neither could I.

Watch on youtube.com

[g-one]

Apparently some local fellers have been flying under my radar. I'm impressed. Band is called 'An Unexpected End'.
This one made me think of our frequent flyer.

Watch on youtube.com

[Lance]

Tiny Dinosaurs by Lunch Money

Enjoy!!!

Watch on youtube.com

[Richard A]

Love it, Lance! And it's perfect for setting me up for the funeral of an old friend, dearly missed but whose daughters have said they want the event to be a celebration of his life rather than a sombre mourning of his passing. Instead of flowers, they're asking us to donate towards a memorial to him in North Wales, which he loved to visit. Than in turn made me think of the line, "Glyder Fach, farewell" from today's entry. It's a suitable memorial to someone who definitely understood the joy of living.

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

[g-one]

I quite enjoyed this story.

Watch on youtube.com

[Heid the Ba]

Hmm, it's nearly Eurovision o'clock and I'm several beers deep. This could get Lionel.

[Lance]

This could get Lionel.

[g-one]

Richie?

[g-one]

Hmm, it's nearly Eurovision o'clock and I'm several beers deep. This could get Lionel.

Loneli ?

[Heid the Ba]

Messi.

[g-one]

Ah. I had also considered 'trainwreck' (Lionel trains), or some variant of cockney rhyming slang.

[Lance]

We went to see Bee Gees Gold, a tribute band, last night.

I gotta tell ya, they looked just like the real deal and sounded like them too. It was an amazing show.

[Мастер]

We went to see Bee Gees Gold, a tribute band, last night.

I gotta tell ya, they looked just like the real deal and sounded like them too. It was an amazing show.

Everyone's favourite Manx musicians.

[Richard A]

I never knew they were Manx! But I see that, indeed they were!

[Lance]

Everyone's favourite Manx musicians.

Huh?