What song are you listening to?

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  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    Paul McCartney's last album was one I listened to with a bottle of French Malbec. Side one plays like side one of a Beatles' album, possibly Let It Be which grows on me more as I get older.

    This track - the climax of Side 1 - has been remixed: Slidin'

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y7R2E1ghaI

    Side 1 is so good I've never really got around to listening to Side 2.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • LoeffelholzLoeffelholz The United States, With LovePosts: 8,988Quartermasters

    Quite a good record. I'm beginning to get a bit emotional as I hear the old boy's voice beginning to show his age. But he's really in a groove in his golden years. His third act remains impressive.

    Check out my Amazon author page! Mark Loeffelholz
    "I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
    "Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    'Beginning to show his age'? It seems to be it's been going for a while now, since Linda departed. This may not be down to grief, I read on one forum that he caught a virus when travelling to India just after then and his voice hasn't been the same since, starting from Driving Rain onwards. His lower register is okay, which is why Women & Wives - in my opinion the best overall track and song he's done in decades - works so well. I went into this album with my eyes - or ears - open, prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. In truth, I did try out Side 2 after the bottle of Malbec was nearly finished and yes, the first track had a rough vocal, he's better on songs where he can bury it or layer it with double tracks.

    There's been a remake of this LP with other artists. The Find My Way track is done by Beck but it really sounds like a cleaned up Macca vocal - you can find it on YouTube, and the video is a DeepFake of Beck as a young Macca. Makes me wonder if the vocal was DeepFaked too and whether this might be the way to go? It's an ethical minefield however.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    Anyway, this is a remix of his song Slidin' off that album, revved up and ready to go. Any Macca fans really should check this out.

    It's brilliant.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,119MI6 Agent

    Huge McCartney fan. Always have been.

    I remember as a kid growing up in the Eighties I would listen to Beatles and McCartney albums more than anything else (not in-keeping with my classmates!) When Flowers in the Dirt came out, I think I listened to it and watched the Put It There video until both were worn out. They were hastily replaced by the CD and DVD a few years later.

    I like McCartney III but I think Egypt Station is a better album. He hasn't ever produced a poor album in my opinion, and how he can still bang out such catchy songs and complete albums at the age he is with his 'Memory Almost Full' is incredible. Absolute genius.

    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    Flowers in the Dirt was his sort of comeback album, in that after that he was going for the elder statesman tag rather than being a pop star. However, he never really had a Top 10 again, at least in the UK. I bought the cassette when I was on a gap year in the US travelling from East to West coast and back again. That same year the Stones did a similarly fine album Steel Wheels, also tapping in the elder statesmen tag.

    Earlier albums in the 1980s were a bit spotty. Press to Play I got, it's struggling a bit. It's odd, because the 1980s wasn't a punky decade, it wasn't like Macca shouldn't have been at the races but he lost his way after his Give My Regards to Broadstreet movie flop.

    I didn't buy Egypt Station or the one before it, again I think it's a shame because his songs are right up there but his vocals.... listen to Appreciate off his New album, it's a great song, could be a Bond theme but you'd need a proper vocal on it. I did buy McCartney III on vinyl, it sounds great and likewise I recently snapped up Electric Arguments on vinyl, I think it gives his vocals a better chance.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    Röyksopp & Alison Goldfrapp with Impossible 🍸

    YNWA 97
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,703MI6 Agent

    Twisted Sister is not usually on my playlist, but Ukrainins are starting to use the song "We're not gona take it" as their unofficial rally song. I can see why. The lyrics seem purpose-made for Ukraine's resitance against the Russian invasion:

    "No, we ain't gonna take it. We're not gonna take it anymore. We've got the right to choose and there ain't no way we'll lose it. This is our life, this is our song. We'll fight the powers that be just, don't pick our destiny 'cause. You don't know us, you don't belong. We're not gonna take it."

    Lead singer Dee Snider's grandfather was an Ukrainan who fled the country in an other time of Russian agression, and he fully supports this use of the song.

    Twisted Sister .. We're Not Gonna Take It HD - Dj Acyr Godoy ®.mp4 - YouTube

  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    These really are a great band….Wet Leg with UR MUM 🍸

    YNWA 97
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    I’d been watching the snooker, disappointed the miserable Welshman Mark Williams was making a comeback against the Joker in the Pack, the ever watchable Judd Trump, accompanied by a bottle of rioja, and nursing the hours, while the BBC rejigged their schedules. I was still on the coffee and the Tempranillo come-down, when I happened upon a repeat of a 1976 concert by the Carpenters, everybody’s non-favourite MOR band. They had a ton of hits in the seventies and when I managed a music store in the early nineties they had a mini-revival which as I recall took everyone by surprise. Their music’s sort of timelessly bland, the splendidly melodramatic arrangements squeezing every last drop of emotion from lyrics you could scribble on the back on a postcard [“Every sha-la-la, every whoa-a-whoa” etc]. As a young man it was the sort of CD you bought your girlfriend for a treat, clutched her in the darkness of the bedroom while the strings of I Won’t Last a Day Without You soared; a few kisses and you thought you’d made it – but she was more interested in pressing ‘repeat’ and singing along. Karen Carpenter is not a babe magnet.

    I digress. 

    This was a concert of insufferable destruction. The band had passed the peak of success in 1976 and this concert felt and looked like an attempt not so much to celebrate the past as consign it to the dustbin. The announcer introduces Richard Carpenter with great aplomb and he bounds into a terribly indulgent intro designed to display his keyboard talent. This show-off doesn’t stop there. His sister isn’t even introduced to the audience – it’s a good thing we know who she is – and after a couple of numbers, she’s shunted sideways in favour of another demonstration of King Richard’s talents [not]: a vaudeville abomination of Close to You and a bastardised arrangement of the Warsaw Concerto, both of which pale in comparison to the subsequent percussion demo given by Karen as she sprints between three different drum sets in an attempt to keep pace with the manic backing band, led by her maestro brother. She succeeds, just, and it was with an air of melancholy that we can see Karen enjoying herself immensely during this interlude. When singing, she looks weary.

    A medley of a dozen hits doesn’t do justice to her voice and potential showstoppers like Superstar and For All We Know are curtailed to miniscule length, losing all emotional depth and lyrical drama. The lack of a decent backing vocalist doesn’t help. They may have paid for an orchestra, but Karen needed more refined accompaniment than the whiney, nasal crow of her brother, which even sounds as if the mic has been adjusted to favour his voice so often does he drown out the lead singer’s softer, more empathetic timbre.

    A concert containing only three full length Carpenter’s songs barely counts as a Carpenter’s concert at all. What it does more than anything is strongly suggest that Richard Carpenter – despite all his protestations since his sister’s unfortunate death – ruled the roost too much in this relationship and that Karen, through a misguided sibling respect, acquiesced too much to his wishes. She deserved to be showcased far better than this, but here we see Richard at work with his fussy pretentions, yet don't witness Karen’s unfussy delivery of simple affecting tunes. Her voice was the reason the Carpenters were so huge and it simply isn’t dominant enough here.       

    I went and dug out that old CD afterwards… “Sha la la…”  

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,703MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    I feel like promoting local music today. Fortunately a local artist just reached second place in the UK with her new album "How to let go". 🥈

    Sigrid (Sigrid Solbakk Raabe) is from Ålesund, the nearest large town from here, and her music is really catchy:

    Sigrid - Burning Bridges (Official Video) - YouTube

  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    Been listening to this for the past week…great ‘80’s vibe…very Joy Division or early New Order…

    Widows by Working Men’s Club 🍸

    YNWA 97
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    For something slightly more upbeat…this is a great slice of pop…never been a fan of theirs but this is sublime 🍸

    Belle and Sebastian with Unnecessary Drama 👍🏻

    YNWA 97
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    Another absolute cracker from Jack White…with a tiny amount of reworking this would have a great DC Bond title song…much to Barbel’s chagrin 🤣

    If I Die Tomorrow - Enjoy 🍸

    YNWA 97
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,703MI6 Agent

    Someone should edit the best Bond moments to Shaggy's "Bombastic"! It would be perfect. 😁

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited September 2023

    'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' by Specimen (1983)

    Batcave goths with their post-punk take on a 60s Bond moniker:

    I wonder how well *they'd* have collaborated with John Barry on creating an 80s Bond song lol

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    Tubular Bells (1973) Mike Oldfield.

    I haven’t listened to this for quite some time. A classic album and 50 years old - wow! Oldfield was only 19 when he recorded this and played most of the instruments himself, which was remarkable. It became a huge hit when parts of the song was used in the horror classic movie The Exorcist. He never repeated this success in later years with other albums so he resorted to releasing different versions of his wonder hit. Can’t blame him for that.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    ahh, @CoolHandBond Tubular Bells is a classic. It took a whole year to reach number one and in fact replaced Oldfield's second album Hergest Ridge at the top ! I agree on your assessment of Oldfield's career. When I was in the music retail business, Tubular Bells II was a massive seller.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    They recently reshowed the Carpenters concert alluded to by @chrisno1 further up this thread and his review really is spot on. Really odd, with a really square audience who might have been delighted to find we had the brother's talents as a pianist on display, adding a touch of class and don't get me wrong, he wasn't bad but who cares? They don't come to see him surely, like turning up to an ABBA concert and it's mainly Bjorn and Bennie. Nah....

    Anyway, tomorrow - or today (2 Nov) we have the premiere of the final Beatles song 'Now and Then' - the title is not a tribute to the late Sir Jimmy Savile of Now Then Now Then catchphrase it emerges - on Radio 2 at 2pm.

    To be fair, you could just hear a tarted up demo on YouTube but best wait for the final version if you haven't. That said, if it's true they can isolate John's vocals to such good effect, they should revisit his 'Free as a Bird' vocal and rejig that one because his vocals were very low in the mix for that one.

    For all my inappropriate joking above, a paperback book called The Beatles Lyrics which was released in the 70s and simply listed all the song lyrics featured an introduction by none other than... Jimmy Savile OBE.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    get your earmuffs out gang! theres a new song by the Beatles!

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    It's a scribble on the back of an envelope really, elevated beyond its status. A scribble might work - some of Lennon's stuff had a Haiku-like quality due to Ono's influence - but it's obvious that the one verse is simply duplicated a few times to pad the song out. Look up another Lennon demo - 'Help Me to Help Myself' which was at the end of the Double Fantasy album reissue and is a proper song, it's a shame George Michael didn't cover it, it's right up his street.

    The lyric Now and Then may be a nod to Paul, where Lennon once said to him, 'Think of me now and then, old friend' at one of their infrequent meetings, it's always unclear to me whether they were on speaking terms much in the last five years. I don't know if the 'For Paul' note on the cassette tape was written by John back in the day or was by Yoko with a view to the Anthology reworking in the mid 90s.

    There are better tracks on Macca's last album McCartney III which I suppose is going back a bit now. 'Women and Wives' and 'Slidin'' are tops, even the derided 'Lavatory Lill' could be off the Let It Be album and sees him in good voice.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    I don't think we need new songs from the Beatles. I heard the new Stones stuff and all this hyperbole - best since thuis or that album - was just garbage. It is an average track by a band sadly on the last leg. The Beatles split up 53 years ago and these knock off jobs just mar the legacy.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    the one story I know about Paul and John in the late 70s is when Lorne Micheals offered the Beatles $3000- for a reunion on Saturday Night Live ("She Loves You Ya Ya Ya thats $1000- right there. George can sing a song about India if you let him, or not. If you want to pay Ringo a smaller share thats your decision, etc")

    By coincidence Paul was at Johns apartment that very moment, smoking dope and watching the new late night comedy show, and both agreed they should go down there and do it, except for New York traffic. If only Lorne had made that announcement at the start of the show instead of near the end, music history would be completely different!

    so they mustve been friendly by 1975/76 even though theyd been dissing each other for the last five years


    (note that offering the Beatles $3000- to reunite is like a Dr Evil joke, and who did Mike Meyers say he based the character of Dr Evil on? thats right, Lorne Michaels!)

  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    A scribble? The original is over 5 mins long…wish I could scribble like that…🙂

    Just listening to Lennon’s voice removed from the piano track is mesmerising ❤️

    YNWA 97
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    I just queried GoogleMaps to see how long it would take to get from The Dakota to 30 Rockefeller Plaza for 12:45 am on saturday night, and GoogleMaps says 11 minutes! it wasnt that far away

    I say they were too stoned to get up and leave Johns apartment, even with the prospect of $3000- to tempt them

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    Well, I don't know about 'the original'. The version put out is just the same thing repeated, and that could work like that Groove Armada sample of 'Sand Dunes and Salty Air' - really I think that approach would work with this and Free as a Bird but instead they try to make it a 'proper song'. It wouldn't pass muster on any Beatles LP. I keep meaning to get the Stones' LP.

    But here's a version someone posted on Twitter - now THIS is what it should have been.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAIMLvF68A0

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    Yea, I listened to that version too…and plenty others 🤣 it’s been done really well…

    Although I will disagree with you about it not being a ‘proper song’….🤨

    The ‘issue’ will ALWAYS be that it wouldn’t make any Beatles album because it was recorded after they’d split…now IF Lennon had lived I think it was pretty certain (at least to me) that at least three of them would have done something…maybe even George would have joined in when he was nearly bankrupt 🤔 and they did like to dig out older stuff 😏 obviously we will never know…but each to their own 🙂

    YNWA 97
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    Poor Pete Best getting blocked out at the end…🫣

    YNWA 97
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited November 2023

    I gotta point out a lot of songs on the White Album, Let it Be, and side 2 of Abbey Road were just fragments dressed up a bit, mostly benefitting form the context of the trackorder. like is this new one any less substantial than Her Majesty? no at least its a proper song with a nice slide solo.


    the debates about the legitimacy of calling this "the final Beatles song" is reminding me of the Pink Floyd album The Endless River that came out a few years back. That one was outtakes from the Division Bell also dressed up with new overdubs and segues, and packaged with typically surreal Floydian artwork, marketed as the "final Floyd album", 20+ years after the last one. Many fans felt that was a bit much, the material was so slight itd be more appropriate as a bonus disc in a Division Bell reissue.

    But in Floyds case, we got a 2 record set with fancy artwork, looks real nice next to a collection of their other vinyl LPs. I dont remember a lot of hype, Gilmour just released it one day and it seemed as f only hardcore Floyd fans noticed. With this "final Beatles song" we have one song and a lot of newspaper headlines and evening news reports, the hype seems more substantial than the song.

  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,418Chief of Staff

    But Pink Floyd are no Beatles 😏 a band that changed music forever 🍸

    YNWA 97
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