Random “Q”sings: Lady Antebellum, Rock Mafia and Britney Spears

Posted on April 23, 2011 by PhilMaq

OK. I woke up this morning with “Run to You” by Lady Antebellum from their self-titled first album running through my head. I have no idea why since I hadn’t heard it in at least a couple of months. I’m not complaining and I’ve certainly had it do that before. (It must be loaded with more hooks than I give it credit for.) It has a long way to go, though, before it passes “Need You Now” by Lady A from the album of the same name-which by the way has now passed 5 million downloads. That song burned a hole in my brain for a long time! (So did “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri!) 

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Heard that Colbie Caillat is scheduled to perform “I Do” at the upcoming TLC broadcast of the Royal Wedding. There’s a couple of other songs that I would have picked by her to do before that one. It’s an average upbeat song with a cute video. But it fits in with the theme of the show.

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I am absolutely getting hooked on “The Big Bang Theory” by Rock Mafia! It’s just a simple standard rock drum beat that’s way up front and LOUD, but it’s the passionate vocals that carry it over the top!

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Another song that gets stuck in my head lately, is “Till the World Ends” by Britney Spears-especially the “ooh ooh” chorus. But in my brain, for some reason, the melody morphs into “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but at the moment, I’ll still take “TiK ToK” over “Till the World Ends.” Sorry, Britney.      

Speaking of “Till the World Ends,” I know the video has been out for a couple of weeks, but I actually sat down and watched it today instead of just glancing at it. It’s pretty good. The “plot” has Britney and her dancers sneaking underground to dance “Till the World Ends” while Armageddon is taking place on the surface above ground. At the end of the video, the sun is breaking through and Britney survives to dance another day. I love positive endings! And it’s so much better than the video for “Blow” by Ke$ha! I hate to see the senseless slaughter of any unicorns. Sorry, Ke$ha.

One last comment about Britney’s video: The world was saved by dancing! Huh? And I thought that only music could save the world. That must be a parallel thought!

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Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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Random “Q”sings: Thompson Square, The Beatles and Los Lonely Boys

Posted on April 23, 2011 by PhilMaq

Just saw the new video by Thompson Square for “I Got You,” their follow up to “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not.” It’s a real hoot! Although the title is similar to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You, Babe,” it is not a remake of the song. However, the couple do a spot-on parody of  “The Sonny & Cher Show.” It is hilarious! Check it out!

BTW, the self-titled album, “Thompson Square” by Thompson Square is a very solid debut album that has a very tight country/rock sound! 

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Please quit taking my precious“Taxman” song by The Beatles hostage every tax day. It’s bad enough that I have to get my taxes in, let alone I have to hear snippets of that song all day long every year when it gets close to the filing date. There are other versions of it out sthere that can be sampled. Use those instead. I don’t want it to get to the point where I don’t want to hear it anymore-much like “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, because that’s the only Halloween song most people know. JUST STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Just listened to some tracks from the recent releases by Tres Mountains and Los Lonely Boys. I like them and they seem to me to be very derivative of Band of Gypsys-the band fronted by Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles. That is good company to be associated with! Rock on!!!! 

While I’ve been typing this, I’ve been listening to “Folk Music from Venezuela” by Huascar Barradas y Maracaibo. (With long generous pauses, of course, to analyze it and read the liner notes.) It’s kind of “new agey” with complicated rhythm changes and a tremendous amount of flute. The liner notes, of which there are plenty, trace the histories of many of the dances and folk music on the CD. Very peaceful! I like it! 

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Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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“Q”sings: The First Music Principle

Posted on April 13, 2011 by PhilMaq

All right, where do I go from here?

As much as I’d like to only talk about music, I’m going to resist that temptation and lay down some principles concerning music that I feel very strongly about. This is not going to be a scholarly discussion, but I am not aware of anyone else approaching music the way I intend to. By the time I am done discussing these, there should be quite a few. I, myself, have never written them down before, so this is new for me, too. I am also going to number them so they’ll be easily referenced -as well as seem more impressive than they are. 

Principle #1: I Still Believe That Music Can Save the World 

Now, that may seem like a corny thing to say, but I think it’s true, and I’ll give you some examples.  

Since man (or woman) discovered how to make music, over time, music and instruments were adapted for various functions. As more people developed their musical skills, more reasons were found to actually have it played. I mean, we brought fife and drums into The Revolutionary War. (Sorry. As I’m typing this, the “Good Sir Robin” song from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is going through my head as an example.)  Music is still used to start and end the day on military bases around the world. It is also used to wake up the astronauts in space. As a matter of fact, while writing this, I watched Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame play a flute duet with someone on the space shuttle (synchronized by Pro Tools, of course). 

Music was used to further class struggles by people like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. It was then used to take on the Civil Rights struggle. I don’t remember who is responsible for this quote; it may have been Civil Rights activist Jesse Jackson, who told Aretha Franklin it would have taken him years to do what her “Respect” song did in such a short span of time. There is something powerful about a simple, constructed song created for a specific reason. Otherwise, why would we bother to sing in church? 

I think that one reason why progressives in the U.S. are struggling politically is because no one is writing good protest songs. If you don’t believe me, check out what Billy Bragg has been using against banks in England for the past couple of years. A good protest song has some intrinsic quality that is stronger than any iniquity it goes up against.

So, I believe that music still can save the world!  

Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace

Q

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“Q”sings: A BEGINNING

Posted on April 11, 2011 by PhilMaq

How do you start in the middle of something?

I’ve been listening to music all of my life. I come from a musical family-not of a pedigreed musical lineage, but a home that always had music playing. I’m quite sure that I was heavily exposed to music way before I was born. That exposure, for better or worse, has helped to shape me into the music obsessive person that I am.

So, I am going to do what any decent musician would do: I am going to synthesize something new from all of the influences that I’ve come across. I consider this journey in music to be the equivalent of a life journey. It’s just that I cannot separate the two. Music is as much a part of my DNA as breathing is or the color of my eyes. In fact, I think about music 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yes, I know what I just said. But I know that even in my subconscious there’s music playing. There has to be! It’s everywhere else in my life!

As much as I know that my musical sojourn is just as unique as every other person out there, I am counting on the similarities of music fanatics to be able to relate to mine. I will fill in more of my background when it’s necessary. In other words, I want to move forward but I occasionally have to look back at both my musical roots as well as my personal ones. I am not promising that I will reach any conclusions about anything on this ride. The goal is to find “good” music. Good is in quotes because that, of course, is a relative term. Those will be discussion points along the way.

I do promise to make this web site as interesting as I can possibly make it. (Since I have no experience running a web site, that may be an empty promise. Ha, ha! But I have several people that are supporting me and urging me on.) The descriptions will certainly be less dry and more passionate. Music should always be more about feeling than thinking! But I had to start somewhere. So here it is-the starting point.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace
Q

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