Today’s song is a sad little anti-war ditty by Jakob Dylan from his recent solo album Seeing Things.
Like his father, Dylan has a way with war songs. And also like his father, he does a nice job not singing about the specific skirmish in which we currently find ourselves. Though it was written during the Iraq war, it could just as easily be about World War II or the Civil War. There is something elemental about the experience of men (and women) at battle that transcends the politics of war.
It has been said that only a hundred people bought The Velvet Underground’s debut album but every one of them started a band. They are certainly one of the most influential groups in rock history, though I’m not very familiar with their output.
The one album of theirs I own is their third, self-titled disc. I picked it up because it contains the original version of ‘Pale Blue Eyes,’ which I fell in love with via an R.E.M. cover. The original is quite lovely, as is much of the album. ‘Candy Says’ and ‘That’s the Story of My Life’ are two other favorites of mine.
I started this week talking about Carly Simon, who put out a burst of great music early in her career and then a lot of mediocre music for the thirty years that followed. Today I’m looking at Lauryn Hill, who is another sort of mystery altogether.
After some interesting work with The Fugees (including a lovely cover of Roberta Flack’s ‘Killing Him Softly’), Hill dropped a bomb on the music world with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. A powerful and seductive blend of hip-hop, soul and R&B, it became an instant classic, topping the charts and winning a bunch of Grammys.
That was 10 years ago. And since then… nothing.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I searched my collection for songs with the word “turkey” in the title but had no luck. Imagine that… more than 8,000 songs and nobody thought to call one ‘Turkey Time’ or ‘The Battle of Turkey.’ I own 15 songs with the word “Christmas” in the title, so I won’t have any trouble a month from now.
So I moved on from turkey to “thank” and hit on this song from Dido’s debut album.
“Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” So said Dorothy Parker, who clearly didn’t anticipate Tina Fey or today’s artist, Lisa Loeb.
Loeb has had a very limited amount of success but I’d guess what little she’s had can be largely attributed to her eye wear. Not to diminish her talents as a singer and songwriter, but it’s hard to deny the power of image in popular music. It’s kind of like Rhianna’s haircut, which seemed to get more press than her songs.
Aside from her glasses, Loeb is known for one thing, and that’s this song… ‘Stay.’
