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hlupdate · 4 years

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In a never-before-published 2012 interview, Harry Styles and Niall Horan talk about their childhoods, the future of One Direction, and much more

In the spring of 2012, I spent a few entertaining days hanging out with the five young members of a British boy band who were just breaking big in the United States. The guys from One Direction were unjaded, unguarded, totally charming, and a puppy pile of optimism and energy. On April 8th, in a New York City hotel room, an 18-year-old Harry Styles and 16-year-old Niall Horan sat down with me for a joint interview, published here for the first time. (The reporting was intended for a Rolling Stone cover story that never ran.)

It was late morning, and they had both just rolled out of bed. Styles wore a hotel bathrobe; Horan, with braces still on his teeth, was in sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a Dallas Mavericks hat a fan had given him during a recent trip to Texas. The conversation was casual, full of laughs, and focused on their formative years.

What did you do at the gym last night? Harry: One of our security guys, his friend’s over, he’s a personal trainer, so I was working with him, and he ripped me to shreds.

In 12 hours, you have to do Saturday Night Live. Are you ready? Harry: Yeah, I think so. I think it’s going to be a fun day. It’s just really exciting, obviously. The show is so huge. For us to get the opportunity to be on it at all was just amazing, and to us, to be performing and just be involved with the show is amazing.

Have you seen whole episodes of it? Harry: I’ve watched a lot of clips on YouTube. They don’t show it in the U.K.

Growing up, when did you realize you could sing or that you wanted to sing? Harry: I sang in primary school, like the school productions, plays and stuff.

What was your first one? Harry: The first one was…I was five, and there was a story about a mouse who lived in a church, and I was Barney, the mouse. I had to wear my sister’s tights, and a headband with ears on it, and I had to sing a song all by myself. I remember it was just like, whatever…in the second, I was Buzz Lightyear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, so you know when they run and hide in the toy shop? Buzz Lightyear was in the toy shop, so they just created my character. The last one, I was in…you know Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat? I was the pharaoh, but I was an Elvis pharaoh.

Did you have a sense that this is what you wanted to do in your life? Harry: I think in school, I was OK, I wasn’t a bad student. I think I just knew I wanted to entertain people and stuff. I was a bit of an attention-seeker at school.

Niall: Me, too. I just talked too much, sang too much.

You were onstage as a kid and were like, “This is what I like”? Harry: I knew it was fun, I had a lot of fun doing it, and I stopped when I started high school, and then I didn’t really do anything, I just sang at home, in the shower, in your bedroom, that type of thing. I guess it started again when my friends were in a band and they wanted to do this battle of the bands competition that was at school, and they needed a singer, and one of my friends asked me.

What did you sing? Harry: We sang “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet, and “Summer of ’69.” We did it more towards the Bowling For Soup version.

How about you, Niall? Niall: I always knew I wanted to sing. I was academic…I was one of those people that if I’m not interested in something, I don’t really care. If I’m not interested in school, I would have never trained or done my homework or anything, I’d have just gone outside and played football or whatever.

Harry: [helpfully translating] Soccer.

Niall: So I always wanted to sing. I was singing here and there, not gigs or anything, but I always sang around the house or whatever, and I played Oliver in a school play. And then I just did that, and people told me I should do something…I was only 10, what could I do at 10? I just did a couple of gigs, and when I got to high school, they told me that I should just try out for The X-Factor.

Who told you? Niall: My French teacher. We used to do talent shows and stuff at school, she was like, “You should do it,” so I did it.

What did that entail? What were the steps from being a kid in high school to getting on the show? Niall: It was the final of The X-Factor the year before, and at the end credits of the final, it says, “If you want to apply for 2010, go online,” so a couple of weeks later, I said, “Right, I’m going to do it,” and I filled in the form online, we were sending emails back and forth, going to this place at this time. The first one is at a big stadium, then if you get through that, you come back the next day. Is that the way they did it with you?

Harry: I had to wait a little bit, I think.

Niall: I was there at five a.m., I got seen at 12, and I was out of there by quarter past 12, and the next day I came back at 10 in the morning. You get through the first round, then they do a round where they don’t tell you if you got through after that.

Harry: They film it.

Niall: The producer and someone from the label. They film it and show it to whoever. Then if you got through that, it takes about two or three weeks until you find out. I was in Spain. Then you just go through the audition.

Harry, how did you wind up on X-Factor? Harry: I basically said, the same as Niall, I was watching the year before, and I remember looking at the young guys on there, and I was kind of like, “I’d love to have a go at it just to see what happens,” and that was kind of it. My mum actually did the application, and then three weeks later, I walked upstairs and she said, “Oh, you’ve got your X-Factor audition Sunday,” and I was like, “OK.”

Niall: In England, it’s the biggest thing ever. It took a while to build.

Harry: The two or three years were steady, and third or fourth, it just blew up.

Niall: It works that one in three people in the UK watch it. There’s 60 million people in the UK, and 21 million people watched the final the year we were in it.

Harry, your band also played at least one wedding right? Harry: Yeah. We actually said that we’d do the wedding gig, and…

Niall: You get paid for it?

Harry: Yeah. 160 quid, between all four of us. 40 quid each…we said we’d do it, and then we found out it was the weekend coming up, and we hadn’t done anything for it, so we asked the bride what kind of stuff she wanted, and she said she didn’t mind, but she wanted some Bob Marley songs. Literally in three days, not even three, probably two days, we learned like 25 songs. We might have known like three of them before. I was 16, maybe 15, singing these Bob Marley songs. There was a girl a couple of years below us, and it was her mum, she said she wanted us to play.

Niall: Can you imagine you’re at a wedding and you have 16-year-old kids up on the stage?

Maybe you were really good! Harry: Yeah, the drummer is one of my best friends from school, he’s a sick drummer, he’s so good.

Did you think the band could be something? Harry: A bit. My friend’s mum was a radio presenter, and she did a radio show for a bit, so she was trying to sort us out a little bit of studio time, we were going to go in and record.

What do your parents do? Harry: My mum is a PA. My dad is a financial adviser.

How about you? Niall: My dad works at a supermarket, he’s the head manager, general manager of an area, not just one, and my mum is unemployed now, so I try to help them out whenever I can.

You probably can. That must be nice. Niall: Yeah, it’s nice, it’s good.

Plus, now you can tell them what to do. Harry: [laughs] “Now you go to bed.”

Were you happy as kids? Did you have adolescent angst and stuff? Did you go through depressed periods? Harry: Not really. I think at one point, I started acting like I was…I had a phase of listening to really heavy music.

Niall: I never went through that.

Harry: Not stupid heavy, but a bit… just because I thought it was cool.

Like what? Harry: Like Nirvana T-shirts, wore black all the time, pretty much.

Were you pretty happy go-lucky? Niall: Yeah, I was always happy. I think me and Harry were lucky. Our parents got divorced quite early, didn’t they, when we were really young. I was four, I didn’t know much, so I was always a happy kid, always up for a laugh, very carefree, and I’m a bit like that now.

Did you both grow up in your moms’ houses? Harry: Yeah.

Niall: I went between both, my mum moved to the country and I didn’t have any interest in it. I always felt like the country is for when you’re older. I was with my mom for a while but got bored, all my friends were in town, I went to school in town and all that stuff. It was more like that.

Harry: I lived with both parents, and then moved with my mum, and we owned a pub for like five years. I remember the first night, it was like a night where a band was playing, and I just thought, “How am I going to get to sleep?” I was three stories up, I was like, “How am I going to get to sleep with this noise?” I was next to a road in Sussex in the middle of nowhere, and by the end, I could fall asleep next to the band, I was so used to the noise.

Was it imprinting your brain? Harry: Maybe. One of the guys who used to play every so often, he used to be in Deep Purple or something… He started teaching me guitar when I was like 10, I think 10, maybe nine. I loved it. I was 10, 11, all of the regulars, I got on with them. I’d walk behind the bar and my head would barely go over the bar. It’s still going now. We sold it to my best friend, we go in all the time still.

People say you come off as more mature than your age, you come off wiser. Did hanging around all those people as a kid help you mature?

Harry: I don’t know, maybe. I moved when I was seven or eight from Cheshire, and it was still Cheshire, but half an hour away, but in terms of not driving and stuff, all my friends lived near my school, so that was a bit further out. One of my friends there was my sister’s age, he was 16 when I was 10. It was so tiny, they were the only teenage boys…we’d ride our bikes and go to the driving range and stuff. It was good, it was fun.

You both wanted to entertain – if it hadn’t worked out, would you have been really unhappy? Harry: Yeah, I think it would be kind of like…one of the reasons you go for X-Factor in the first place is that you want to do this, and it kind of helps you get out of the life that you were doing before. I worked in a bakery for two years. Obviously, I didn’t want to do that for ages!

If you’d asked people at school, would they have said, “Yeah, they’re probably going to be famous,” or would they never have guessed that? Niall: My aunt, I was in the back of her car. We used to go across Ireland to go to the beach for a couple of weeks, and I remember we were in the car, I was singing, and she thought I was the radio, and she told me, I never forgot it, that she thought I was going to be famous since I was six, seven. She was the only person who told me that, so I always remembered that.

Harry: My dad said it. I used to listen to a lot of the music he was playing, he’d play Elvis Presley to death, the Stones, I’d sing along to that and he’d say, “You’re going to be famous,” or whatever. He came on tour with us for a few days out here, he came to the Radio City show. He just said, for him, it was so educational. Obviously, he hears about what happens when I call him, but to see it and see it actually happen and how everything works was so good for him, he really enjoyed it. So that was nice.

So you grew up on Elvis and the Stones? Harry: Yeah, pretty much. My dad was a massive Stones fan, so it was pretty much Beatles and Stones in terms of what my dad played.

People say you kind of look like Mick.

Niall: He gets that a lot.

Harry: I get it more here, probably, than I do at home. It’s because of the British thing.

What have you learned about life from the last few years, what didn’t you know? What advice would you give yourself? Niall: How much more independent we actually are – me, anyway. Your mum attends to your every need and does your food and washing and gives you somewhere to live. Then you go into the real world, as you’re told as a kid…

Harry: We’re living on our own now.

Niall: We just started living on our own in the last six months, really.

Harry: I’m moving when I get back.

Niall: We do our own washing, we make our own food, we rent places, we’re out on our own now. You mature so quick, you’re dealing with big businessmen every day, you’re not dealing with school, people your own age. It’s a bit different.

Harry: You seem to learn so many life lessons, but in such a short space of time. If I speak to my friends and they’re having problems with girls, whatever it is, now I seem to just have the answer. I don’t know, it’s just different. Or I think I have the answer. In terms of…one of my friends was trying to decide what to do with school, stuff like that, and I would have had no idea what to say to him before.

The last two years must feel like 10. Harry: Yeah, but at the same time, it feels like six months, it’s weird. X-Factor was two years ago, but it seems like five years ago, but at the same time, it’s gone so quick. It’s a really strange dynamic of how it feels.

Do you have a sense of how this is going to go? Does it matter if it’s two years, five years or forever? Harry: I think how much we all enjoy it, because we love what we do – if you have to call it a job, it’s an incredible job to have, and we love it. We’ll all want to do it for as long as possible. If we have the opportunity to have a Take That kind of career, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t want to do that. If we don’t, I don’t know…we’ve done some amazing things already, but we don’t want to stop there, we want to keep going. I guess if we didn’t, I think we’d probably want to still be involved in…I’d just write, I guess.

Do you want to act? It feels like you could have your own TV show. Harry: I think it would be more of a documentary, because obviously, we’re not actors.

People must want you to try. Niall: Watch tonight, tell us what you think. Watch SNL.

Will you all make solo albums? Is that inevitable? Harry: No, I don’t think so.

Niall: Let’s do a swing album!

Harry: [laughs] We’ll all do swing albums. We’re just so focused on this, we all feel so lucky just to be part of this opportunity that we’ve all been given, it’s incredible, we’re just loving it. It’s sick.

People make a lot of assumptions about people in your position. They think you’re puppets and do what you’re told. What do you do when people make those assumptions? Harry: When you look from the outside, especially if you’re a skeptic of groups made through TV shows, which is fair enough, people don’t see what we do on a daily basis, people don’t see…I think from the outside, it looks so glamorous, they see us do TV performances every now and again, see us doing an interview every now and again, but they don’t know that we work seven days a week.

Niall: If there was eight days, we’d fit it in.

Harry: It’s not as completely glamorous all the time, of course it’s not, it would be stupid to think that it would be, but it’s hard work.

Niall: You’ve got to remember that you’ve got people on your team that have been doing this for many years and have been through the mill. You have all that experience around you, even from our tour manager, who’s been doing this for 20 years, they know what’s right, but at the same time, we want to have creative control, because at the end of the day, it’s us stepping out onto the stage of SNL tonight and have to sing these songs. We want to be singing what we enjoy, as we said last night. The music we all listen to is what we try and blend together to make this One Direction sound.

Harry: We obviously want to make it authentic and have our say without going, “People say we don’t control it, so we need to take control.” We’re not…we haven’t been writing songs for 20 years, we’re not producers. We’ve got an incredible team around us. Luckily, we’ve been given a lot of freedom, so we don’t go, “OK, we just need more and more control,” because we have a lot of control already. I think we find a really good balance in the way we work with our record label and our management, and it’s just how we work together, I think.

In any case, it’s probably better than the bakery. Harry: Yeah. But I don’t get a nice bun on my break anymore, that’s the thing.

Did you wear an apron? Harry: Oh yeah, I wore a white polo shirt and a maroon apron with white stripes. “What would you like? 78 pence, thank you very much.”

Were you behind the counter? Harry: Yeah, I was behind the counter. It was good. It was Saturday morning, I started at five and finished at four in the afternoon and got like 30 quid, it was a joke.

Niall, did you have a job? Niall: No, never.

So this is your first job. Niall: Yeah, not bad at all. I was chilling, I was being a kid.

Harry: I had a paper route before that. It gave me a bad back, bad posture. It was a heavy bag.

I interviewed some fans downstairs, and asked if they knew who you were six months ago, and they all said yes, and a year ago…They were all early adopters, heard you from the Internet, watched X Factor on YouTube… Harry: It’s the internet. People have friends over here that might tell their friends and look on YouTube and show their friends. It’s insane how it’s blown up. We’ve had the opportunity to come over to America and do shows, and release our music over here, which is amazing. Through the power of social media, we already had a bit of a following before we’d ever been over here, we hadn’t done any shows. We had some fans out here, which was amazing, but weird, really strange. I don’t know, it’s gone crazy. We don’t really see loads of it. We do the shows, then we’re in hotels, then we fly somewhere else. We don’t see massive amounts of it, we just go with it. This whole thing has gone on, and it’s sick.

Do you ever feel anxious through all this? Harry: Yeah, I think, obviously, just naturally, you think about what’s going to happen in the future. We’re 18, 19, 20 years old, we’re young. I wouldn’t say anxious, we’re just excited most of the time, and having so much fun, that if stuff were to finish and you were to look back on your time and all you did the whole time throughout this amazing stuff was shitting yourself about what’s going to happen next, then it would just be…I think you have to enjoy it while it’s going on. I think you should be wary about the future, but not worrying about it all the time. We still enjoy it and have fun, but obviously, you do think, “What am I going to be doing in 20 years, 30 year?” I’ll have kids by then.

Harry, I saw a tabloid with pictures of everyone smiling, and you were looking thoughtful. Do you get down sometimes? While everyone else is having fun, do you start drifting off? Harry: No, I think I’m naturally…not everyone is happy all of the time. I think you always have times when…like when you’ve just landed off a really long flight or miss home or something. They got a picture of me where I wasn’t smiling. I usually smile, but they got one where I wasn’t smiling and used that, and then said I wasn’t happy. They did that for a few days, that’s when we were in L.A. last time. It goes with the morbid voice.

Ringo would say, “It’s just me face.” Niall: “Who’s that little old man?” [quoting Hard Day’s Night]

Harry: “That’s Paul’s grandfather. He’s very clean.”

Sometimes you can drift off, that’s just your thing. Harry: [laughs] I’m just soulful, man, I try.

Harry, do you mind when you’re singled out for attention? Harry: I don’t know. I don’t really…I don’t know. We’re a band. Everything we do is together. I don’t take much notice of it.

So you’re not the Justin. Harry: No.

Niall: J.C. was popular, too, wasn’t he?

It’s not like that for you guys. Harry: Not at all.

There was an imbalance in that group. Harry: I think we find it important that people get to know all of our individual personalities, because…

Niall: I think that’s what’s good about it, people see us as individuals as well as a band, we all have our own personality, and we all give something to a band. Previous bands, they go around and can never explain themselves, they can explain the band, but as individuals, what we bring to the band and stuff…

Harry: We all know that we all have our roles, and we all know that without one of us, it wouldn’t work.

#harry styles #niall horan #one direction #230720 #1d ten

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dailytomlinson · 4 years

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In the spring of 2012, I spent a few entertaining days hanging out with the five young members of a British boy band who were just breaking big in the United States. The guys from One Direction were unjaded, unguarded, totally charming, and a puppy pile of optimism and energy. On April 8th, in a New York City hotel room, Harry Styles and Niall Horan, both 18, sat down with me for a joint interview, published here for the first time. (The reporting was intended for a Rolling Stone cover story that never ran.)

What did you do at the gym last night? Harry: One of our security guys, his friend’s over, he’s a personal trainer, so I was working with him, and he ripped me to shreds.

Have you seen whole episodes of it?

Harry: I’ve watched a lot of clips on YouTube. They don’t show it in the U.K.

Growing up, when did you realize you could sing or that you wanted to sing?Harry: I sang in primary school, like the school productions, plays and stuff.

What was your first one? Harry: The first one was … I was five, and there was a story about a mouse who lived in a church, and I was Barney, the mouse. I had to wear my sister’s tights, and a headband with ears on it, and I had to sing a song all by myself. I remember it was just like, whatever.… In the second, I was Buzz Lightyear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. So you know when they run and hide in the toy shop? Buzz Lightyear was in the toy shop, so they just created my character. The last one, I was in … you know Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat? I was the pharaoh, but I was an Elvis pharaoh.

Did you have a sense that this is what you wanted to do in your life? Harry: I think in school I was OK, I wasn’t a bad student. I think I just knew I wanted to entertain people and stuff. I was a bit of an attention-seeker at school.

Niall: Me, too. I just talked too much, sang too much.

What did you sing? Harry: We sang “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet, and “Summer of ’69.” We did it more towards the Bowling For Soup version.

Harry: [helpfully translating] Soccer.

Who told you? Niall: My French teacher. We used to do talent shows and stuff at school, she was like, “You should do it,” so I did it.

Harry: I had to wait a little bit, I think.

Harry: They film it.

Niall: In England, it’s the biggest thing ever. It took a while to build.

Harry: The two or three years were steady, and third or fourth, it just blew up.

Niall: It works that one in three people in the UK watch it. There’s 60 million people in the UK, and 21 million people watched the final the year we were in it.

Harry, your band also played at least one wedding right? Harry: Yeah. We actually said that we’d do the wedding gig, and…

Niall: You get paid for it?

Niall: Can you imagine you’re at a wedding and you have 16-year-old kids up on the stage?

Maybe you were really good! Harry: Yeah, the drummer is one of my best friends from school, he’s a sick drummer, he’s so good.

What do your parents do? Harry: My mum is a PA. My dad is a financial adviser.

How about you? Niall: My dad works at a supermarket, he’s the head manager, general manager of an area, not just one, and my mum is unemployed now, so I try to help them out whenever I can.

You probably can. That must be nice. Niall: Yeah, it’s nice, it’s good.

Plus, now you can tell them what to do. Harry: [laughs] “Now you go to bed.”

Niall: I never went through that.

Harry: Not stupid heavy, but a bit… just because I thought it was cool.

Like what? Harry: Like Nirvana T-shirts, wore black all the time, pretty much.

Did you both grow up in your moms’ houses? Harry: Yeah.

People say you come off as more mature than your age, you come off wiser. Did hanging around all those people as a kid help you mature?

So you grew up on Elvis and the Stones? Harry: Yeah, pretty much. My dad was a massive Stones fan, so it was pretty much Beatles and Stones in terms of what my dad played.

People say you kind of look like Mick.

Niall: He gets that a lot.

Harry: I get it more here, probably, than I do at home. It’s because of the British thing.

Harry: We’re living on our own now.

Niall: We just started living on our own in the last six months, really.

Harry: I’m moving when I get back.

Do you want to act? It feels like you could have your own TV show. Harry: I think it would be more of a documentary, because obviously, we’re not actors.

People must want you to try. Niall: Watch tonight, tell us what you think. Watch SNL.

Will you all make solo albums? Is that inevitable? Harry: No, I don’t think so.

Niall: Let’s do a swing album!

Niall: If there was eight days, we’d fit it in.

Harry: It’s not as completely glamorous all the time, of course it’s not, it would be stupid to think that it would be, but it’s hard work.

In any case, it’s probably better than the bakery. Harry: Yeah. But I don’t get a nice bun on my break anymore, that’s the thing.

Did you wear an apron? Harry: Oh yeah, I wore a white polo shirt and a maroon apron with white stripes. “What would you like? 78 pence, thank you very much.”

Were you behind the counter? Harry: Yeah, I was behind the counter. It was good. It was Saturday morning, I started at five and finished at four in the afternoon and got like 30 quid, it was a joke.

Niall, did you have a job? Niall: No, never.

So this is your first job. Niall: Yeah, not bad at all. I was chilling, I was being a kid.

Harry: I had a paper route before that. It gave me a bad back, bad posture. It was a heavy bag.

Ringo would say, “It’s just me face.” Niall: “Who’s that little old man?” [quoting Hard Day’s Night]

Harry: “That’s Paul’s grandfather. He’s very clean.”

Sometimes you can drift off, that’s just your thing. Harry: [laughs] I’m just soulful, man, I try.

Harry, do you mind when you’re singled out for attention? Harry: I don’t know. I don’t really…I don’t know. We’re a band. Everything we do is together. I don’t take much notice of it.

So you’re not the Justin. Harry: No.

Niall: J.C. was popular, too, wasn’t he?

It’s not like that for you guys. Harry: Not at all.

There was an imbalance in that group. Harry: I think we find it important that people get to know all of our individual personalities, because…

Harry: We all know that we all have our roles, and we all know that without one of us, it wouldn’t work.

#brian hiatt #rolling stone #harry styles #niall horan #press #230720 #10years1d

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harrisonarchive · 4 years

Photo

George Harrison, Friar Park, circa 1990; photo by Terry O'Neill.

George's jukebox at Kinfauns has been explored by the Harrison Archive (and is available as a playlist here), thanks in large part to an article about it, published in the Record Mirror's 1 January 1966 issue.

George's jukeboxes at Friar Park, however, are a little more obscure. The following playlist of songs featured on the jukeboxes and mentioned in some way from 1970 onward is an approximate one only, based on doing some digging into print interviews, audio interviews, and written pieces by family and friends. (The tracks include information previously posted on the Harrison Archive. For - hopefully - easier navigation, I've also bolded the artists -- and tracks known for certain to have been either on the jukeboxes or George's favorites.)

"Stardust" (instrumental) - Hoagy Carmichael "Our son, Dhani, and I, like George’s friends, were spoiled by his rich and loving presence: from the morning wake-up call, which could have been (depending on our location and mood) a morning raga, a Vedic chant, a Mozart concerto, Cab Calloway’s ‘Bugle Call Rag,’ or Hoagy’s earliest instrument version of ‘Stardust'..." - Olivia Harrison [read more]

"Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" - The Four Tops "Rescue Me" - Fontella Bass

These tracks receive shoutouts in George's "This Song" (and the Four Tops were Sixties favorites, too, appearing on his Kinfauns jukebox).

"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" - Cab Calloway Clearly a favorite by one of his favorite artists, covered by George for Jools Holland's TV show, and also released on his posthumous album Brainwashed.

"When I'm Cleaning Windows" - George Formby "September In The Rain" - Dinah Washington "Dizzy Fingers" - Zez Confrey

George was a member of the George Formby Society (and attended conventions with Olivia and Dhani), and became friends with another attendee, Ray Bernard, who recalled the latter two of the above songs as some of George's favorites. (The Beatles also covered "September In The Rain" for their Decca audition; I'm not sure if George preferred Dinah Washington's version to any other, but its release year is closest to when the Fabs covered it, hence the inclusion on the playlist.)

"A Shine On Your Shoes" - Fred Astaire

Covered by George in a home video shared by the Harrison Family in the Guitar Collection app and the deluxe limited edition of Living In The Material World (and, on 1 February 2020, by Olivia on her Instagram, where she explained that George was playing a Danny Ferrington Keoki ukulele).

"True Love" - Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly

George covered this song as well, for his 1976 album Thirty-Three & 1/3. As Olivia recalled on Dark Horse Radion in 2018: "We'd been watching ‪Bing Crosby‬ and Grace Kelly, watching that movie ['High Society'], and they do a duet, and just that little harmony thing they do, because she wasn’t known as really a singer; he’d play and then we'd sing it." [read more]

"Roll Over Beethoven" - Chuck Berry

A longtime favorite, George covered this with The Beatles, during his 1991 Japan tour, and during his 1992 Natural Law Party concert, where it became the last song he played live onstage at a concert in his lifetime. As George said, "there hasn’t been any rock & roll better than that." [read more]

"Hong Kong Blues" - Hoagy Carmichael

Hoagy Carmichael was a favorite of George's, and he covered this song for his 1981 album Somewhere In England.

"Barnacle Bill the Sailor" - Hoagy Carmichael

A favorite, associated with George by Dhani, and mentioned by Olivia. "He would go up at parties to the DJ and say, ‘I’ve got something really amazing.’ ‘Cause he was who he was, they would listen to him, and then everyone would just be bummed out, it would clear the dance floor. And then he’d come back later - ‘I’ve got something else’ - and he’d put it on again. You know, he would just do this until the DJ was like [exasperated]." - Dhani Harrison, la minute rock, Rolling Stone France, 28 Nov 2017 [read more]

"Midnight Special" - Leadbelly "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - Hank Williams "The Great Pretender" - The Platters "Words Of Love" - Buddy Holly

The songs themselves might not be George's favorites or jukebox selections -- as yet, I haven't found any mention of actual song titles, so these are just personal choices -- but the artist were mentioned by George and Olivia; and "Words Of Love" was obviously a favorite, having been covered by The Beatles, and, according to Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle research, initially having been sung by George and John.

"The Ying Tong Song" - The Goons "I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas" - The Goons

Both these tracks were mentioned by Olivia as having been on the Friar Park jukeboxes in December 1974.

"The Lumberjack Song" - Monty Python "Spam Song" - Monty Python "Layla" - Eric Clapton

These tracks were mentioned by Eric Idle as having been on George's jukeboxes at Friar Park. "The Lumberjack Song" was of course also performed at the Concert for George.

"Heartbreak Hotel" - Elvis Presley

Eric Idle also recalled early Elvis being on the jukeboxes; and of course, George named the song as his first musical root.

"Blue Suede Shoes" - Carl Perkins "The Bells of Rhymney" - The Byrds

These two Perkins and Byrds songs were mentioned as favorite songs by George in the March 1997 issue of Guitar World.

"Mauna Loa" - Gabby Pahinui

Another artist loved by George, although again, this track choice is just a haphazard personal one, since there doesn't seem to be any public mention of which of Pahinui's songs were George's preferred ones.

"Ooo Baby Baby" - The Miracles "I'll Try Something New" - The Miracles

George absolutely loved The Miracles, and Smokey Robinson specifically, collecting their records, and writing songs in honor of Smokey ("Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You) -- a nod to the first of the two Miracles tracks listed here -- on the 1975 album Extra Texture, and "Pure Smokey" on the 1976 album Thirty-Three & 1/3). As Olivia has recalled: "We used to sit around singing a lot of Smokey Robinson songs. That kind of sealed our relationship, I think. [George] said, 'You're the only person I've ever known who sang the high note at the end of "I'll Try Something New."'"

“Back On The Chain Gang” - The Pretenders “Brothers In Arms” - Dire Straits “Cold Day In Hell” - Gary Moore

The three tracks by The Pretenders, Dire Straits and Gary Moore were mentioned as favorites by George in the March 1997 issue of Guitar World.

"Long Tall Sally" - Little Richard

George was a Little Richard all his life, as various comments over the years show.

"Tandoori Chicken" - Ronnie Spector "I Am Missing You" - Lakshmi Shankar "Rebel Music" (live) - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Put down on tape during the "Try Some, Buy Some" sessions, "Tandoori Chicken" was an improvised song, as George recalled: "a 12-bar thing done on the spot with Mal our roadie and Joe the chauffeur." For Dark Horse Records, and featuring Lakshmi Shankar, one of [George's] favorite singers," another song for this playlist is "I Am Missing You." The Marley track was chosen from the setlist of the three 1975 Roxy show attended by George and Olivia, recalled by George as "the best thing I've seen in ten years. [...] I could watch The Wailers all night."

"The Rain Song" - Led Zeppelin "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" - The Beach Boys

"The Rain Song" was written in response to a comment made by George, and subsequently made it on one of the two jukeboxes. The Beach Boys song was on the jukeboxes, and -- like "The Rain Song" -- played at the wedding of Dhani and Sola, as reported by Vogue in 2012.

"Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" - Stevie Wonder "Telephone Line" - Electric Light Orchestra "Come On In My Kitchen" - Robert Johnson "When The Levee Breaks" - Memphis Minnie

All four of these artists were mentioned as favorites by George in a 1976 interview. (The titles are arbitrary choices, since the interviewer didn't ask George for any further details. However, Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen" was covered by George and band during rehearsals for the Concert for Bangladesh.)

"Maria Elena" - Ry Cooder "Concert in B (live in 1963) - Andrés Segovia

Two artists mentioned frequently by George as being favorites (Segovia first in 1963 -- hence the choice of a live piece from that year -- and up through the 1990s). The Cooder track was specifically mentioned by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines.

"Piano Concert No. 21" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Olivia mentioned a Mozart concerto as being something George would play in the mornings as they were starting the day, so this is another random choice of a concerto.

"The Weight" - The Band

The atmosphere of the song inspired the Harrisong "All Things Must Pass," as George recalled in 1987 -- he also named it as a song he admired in that same interview. In a 1974 interview with Capital Radio, George deemed The Band "the best band I've ever seen."

"Farther On Down The Road (You Will Accompany Me)" - Jesse Ed Davis

A Harrisong was given to Jesse by George, and recorded by Jesse before it was released by George himself (but since "Sue Me, Sue You Blues," the song in question, is already on a collaborations playlist....); this Davis selection (written by Jesse and Taj Mahal) was covered live by George and Eric Clapton in December 1978.

"Isn't It A Pity" (cover) - Nina Simone "Backwater Blues" - Big Bill Broonzy "Changes" - Bix 'n' Bing

Nina Simone's cover of the Harrisong "Isn't It A Pity" in turn influenced the mood of another Harrisong; and Dhani recalled listening to Simone, Big Bill Broonzy (who is name-checked in the Harrisong "Wreck Of The Hesperus") and Bix 'n' Bing together with his dad (these tracks are once more personal choices).

"April Kisses" - Eddie Lang

The first song on this playlist, "Stardust," was "one of [George's] favorite songs," as Olivia has recalled; she also named Eddie Lang (though she didn't mention a specific title).

"Kalimankou Denkou" - Le Mystere des voix bulgares

George enthused about this Bulgarian choir in numerous interviews, and introduced this particular song during his interview on Rockline in February 1988.

"Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All" - Ry Cooder

"Later, after a lasagna dinner in his ornately paneled kitchen with his wife Olivia, their son Dhani (just home from his school year at Brown University in the States), and Olivia’s sister, Linda, Harrison takes his visitor upstairs to his Friar Park Studio. Picking up a nearby National dobro from the vast array of vintage guitars hanging from the walls, Harrison slips a glass bottleneck on his finger as he seats himself to strum 'The Farmer Is The Man Who Feeds Us All,' the traditional tune of 1860s America made famous in the 1920s by Fiddlin’ John Carson and later popularized on Ry Cooder’s 1971 'Into The Purple Valley” album as 'Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All.' 'That’s where I first heard the tune,”'says Harrison of Cooder’s interpretation, before he begins to sing: 'The farmer is the man, the farmer is the man/Buys on credit until the fall/Then they take him by the hand/And they lead him from his land/And the merchant he’s the man who gets it all.'" (Billboard, 19 Jun 1999)

"God's Own Drunk" - Lord Buckley

This particular Buckley piece was mentioned by George in a 1979 radio interview promoting his eponymous album, and the song "If You Believe": "Pray, give up, and it all recedes away from you. I don’t know if you… you must have heard Lord Buckley, you know, well, there is a thing he did called 'God’s Own Drunk.' I think it was that. Anyway, it was one of Lord Buckley’s things and he was talking about love. He said: 'Love is like a beautiful garden, you know, when you use it it spreads, but when you don’t -- it recedes.' And it’s true. It’s really that in its simplest form." [read more]

"Free Fallin'" - Tom Petty

As Dhani has said, he can remember "getting advance copies sent to my dad from Tom. He’d be like, 'You want to hear Tom’s new stuff?' And it would be the first time anyone’s heard 'Free Fallin'." (Premier Guitar, Jan 2018)

"Let It Be Me" - The Everly Brothers

Covered by George in a demo version after seeing the Everly Brothers in concert (George's cover appears on Early Takes Vol. 1).

"Clair de Lune" (cover) - Isao Tomita

One of George's favorites, as Olivia has recalled.

"México Lindo y Querido" - Jorge Negrete

Negrete was mentioned as a favorite by George, and Olivia recalled Negrete being on George's jukebox.

"Bugle Call Rag" - Cab Calloway

Recalled by Olivia in her introduction for Harrison, and as George's school wakeup call for Dhani.

"Cool River" - Maria Muldaur "Fear Of Flying" - Charlie Dore

Two more specific songs mentioned or covered by George.

"Sweet Leilani" - Bing Crosby

Mentioned as a favorite of George's by Tom Petty, and by Olivia.

"Every Grain Of Sand" - Bob Dylan

Named as one of George's favorite songs in his June 1999 Billboard interview: "I mean, you tell me one person other than Bob Dylan who has a moral message in a tune that's improved upon Bob's words in his song 'Every Grain of Sand.'"

"Kaliyuga Varadan" & "Ragam Tanam Pallavi" & "Gajavadhana" - U. Srinivas

One of George's favorite artists, as he, Dhani and Olivia have recalled; these three particular tracks were singled out by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines.

"Raga - Manj Khamaj" - Ravi Shankar "Guru Bandana (Prayer)" - Ali Akbar Khan "Abhogi" - Hariprasad Chaurasia "Kafi Holi (Spring Festival Of Color)" - Ravi Shankar "Enna Thavam" - Papanasam Sivan "Thumri - Mishra Tilang Raga - Addha Taal" - Sultan Khan "You And Me" - Zakir Hussain "Raga Chayya Nat" - Kala Ramnath

The eight selections above are mentioned by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines.

“México” - Mariachi Sol de Mexico

In 1998, George commissioned José Hernández - founder of Mariachi Sol de México - to translate and arrange the Harrisong "Dark Sweet Lady" in Spanish, as a special version for Olivia. While that recording is understandably a private one, mariachi music seems to have been a favorite of the Harrison family and the Arias family, as it's mentioned as having been played at family events held in California. And: "Last year I brought over a mariachi orchestra [Mariachi Sol de México] and we had a private concert at Friar Park because I got tired of waiting 30 years for someone else to do it. It was my way to let my friends experience that music – which was what George was always trying to do. He wanted people to understand and be moved by the music that he loved." - Olivia Harrison, Songlines, Jun 2018

"Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie" - Bob Dylan "Bhoop Ghara" - Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Brij Bhushan Kabra

"George used to always say that if ever you are not feeling right, you should listen to Bob Dylan's 'Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie' and 'Call of the Valley.'" (Olivia Harrison) This track from "Call Of The Valley" was mentioned by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines: "[it was] something George had on our juke box. We played it as a remedy in our home if you were feeling a certain way. Kabra was one of George’' heroes as a slide guitarist, up there with Ry Cooder."

"Sarve Shaam" - Ravi Shankar

From the 1997 album Chants of India (produced by George), the song was also performed at the Concert for George, and was clearly very special to George, as Olivia remembers: "At the end of his life George said to me that all he could listen to was 'Sarve Shaam.' After all the sounds and sights and tastes you experience over a lifetime, it came down to the purity of 'Sarve Shaam.'"

Listen on... YouTube | Spotify

#George Harrison #quote #quotes by George #quotes about George #ghjukebox #harrisonarchive features #Olivia Harrison #Dhani Harrison #Tom Petty #Ravi Shankar #Jesse Ed Davis #et al #George's jukebox #fits queue like a glove

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johns-prince · 4 years

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I have a sort of weird McLennon AU idea: Reincarnated!John

I got the idea from reading this interview with Paul McCartney, where he claims if he had been a girl he could have maybe gone out and fought for John to keep their very close relationship and prevent Yoko from essentially “stealing,” John away.

Then I got to thinking, well, what if, instead, John had been the girl? Which then lead to me connecting it too-- well, what if when John had been killed, on Dec. 8th, a little girl had also been born. Basically, John’s soul being reincarnated as a female.

A little girl born a few hours after John Lennon was assassinated, December 8th, 1980, in a hospital in Liverpool England, named Joan Winifred Stanley. Jo, or JoJo for short.

Now while this girl has John’s soul, heart, mind, and similarities feminized-- Joan is still an individual, with her own childhood and memories-- who’s growing up in the 80s, and is a lively, young, and lovely teenage girl in the beginning of the 90s. Her favorite rocker is Joan Jett, likes Blondie, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, and has a secret love for Elvis Presley... knows of the Beatles, but only see’s the band and their music as “alright, sort of antwacky.” though her mom fancies them.

Joan has fiery auburn colored hair which reaches some past her shoulders, wavy and thick, can often be a big birds nest of a mess. Milk chocolate brown eyes that appear to have specks of amber when the sunlight hits them; while softened with heavy lashes, are burning and alert, a glare could possibly kill someone. Poor eyesight, hates wearing her glasses because she thinks they make her look like a total lame.

[reference to what sort of glasswear her eyes required and the style of them]

5′5″, thiccc thighs, perky but rather small breasts, wide hips. Noticeable jawline and chin, though softened with baby fat, high cheekbones, sharp aquiline nose, bottom lip plumper than the top. Top two front teeth are crooked, slightly turned inward. It’s hard for me to describe her hairstyle during the very start of the 90s, so it’s something like this since she is an 80s child and for most of her young teens was in the crowd so;

See now, this is what I have for female John / Joan as far of what her face and hair may look like;

****[It’s still sort of rough, I know, I need to ink her in and then color her before I wanna show the full reference drawing. I honestly want to try and give her a bit more of a wider jawline, or a bit longer of a face-- but again, Joan is still her own person so she can’t look exactly like John, of course]

Sagittarius[John was a Libra], smoker of Luckies, musically inclined [perhaps sounds like a mix of Deborah Harry and Joan Jett? Though more nasally] loves to sing, learned to play acoustic guitar from her mother, and learned to play the harmonica from her grandda [the one good thing he had given to her as their relationship was generally soured since her mother’s parents saw her as nothing more than a bastard child] Could be considered a bit tomboyish but knows how to use her feminine wiles to manipulate, humiliate, and get what she wants. Tries not to be a horrible rebel as she hates to disappoint and stress out her mother, but can be a wild child and has a bit of an issue with authority and respecting rules and requests she deems unnecessarily stupid. Single child raised under a single mother as her father was never in the picture, and while her mothers’ parents were around they barely helped, so they lived in the manner of “we manage.” Coming from Liverpool, and in the poor-working class of society, her mannerisms of speaking are indeed Scouse.

Hot tempered, jealous/possessive of close friends and crush/lover, quick wit and sharp tongued, masks hurt with indifference and practically ghosting someone til she gets over it or they apologize adequately. Wants to love and own people, but does NOT want to be owned or tied down as it makes her feel caged. Freedom of self is incredibly important to her, and feeling like she’s losing it can cause her to act out and lash out.

Now, in the early 1990s, I believe Paul is around the age of 49/50. This might be just me projecting, but that makes Paul the legit Daddy in this whole thing, if ya catch my drift. Paul is, in my humble opinion, rather attractive and handsome in his late forties/early fifties. So yeah, silver fox Paul is gonna be a thing.

I have a thing for older men, alright? Let me project just a little bit here in my own AU.

I really haven’t thought much on how these two end up meeting, perhaps they meet during Paul’s World Tour during 1990? Again, Joan knows of the Beatles, and knows of Paul McCartney-- begrudgingly she does like a bit of his music-- but hadn’t the money, nor the greatest of utmost desire as many of her other female friends had, to get into to see him when he stopped in Liverpool. She thought it to be neat, but could live without seeing him.

But fate would lead to the two of them meeting, in probably an unexpected sort of way.

Anyways, right away Paul get’s this extremely strange vibe from this girl, this girl who watches him, squinting up at him, with such interest-- and despite being a well known [legendary] and talented musician, and veteran of the music industry, he suddenly feels like he’s been thrown back to the very first day he’d met the scruffy and polar opposite, John Lennon. He finds himself wanting to impress this young bird, because he feels as if despite all his credentials, they mean nothing at this very moment, and he’s stupidly nervous around some girl he had just happened to bump into [because she’s a young bird perhaps?? with burning brown eyes and a quirked, teasing mouth that reminded him of someone???], and it’s like being back to square one of having to prove himself, of his talent and passion, and in the end, the two appear to be sizing each other up, circling like predators do with prey. It’s a painful comparison when he realizes it, realizes how far this whole interaction threw him back, back into memories and feelings he had long since tried to bury, as not cry and mourn over each day.

It’s her who tries to end the first encounter, because she also gets this awfully weird aura from this old rock n’ roller, but she has no memories to connect it too. It leaves her feeling frustrated, because she really can’t find any rhyme or reason to why she feels this way, why she feels that this isn’t their first time interacting. Despite being an older man, she can’t help but think he looks rather good, and while she can’t put her finger on it again, she thinks that if Elvis had lived to be a bit older, he’d look something like this McCartney fellow. And while she tries to hide it, act indifferent and barely moved that she’s talking to the Paul McCartney, she does feel a bit starstruck, and so she simply wants to end this and keep it as a personal, favorite memory that she may recount to her friends and mother, who’ll probably think she’s just bullshittin’.

But when she attempts to leave, again this McCartney man, who insists that she call him Paul, catches her attention with a light grasp of her arm and stops her instantly. He’s quick to drop the hand the moment she whips her head around, shooting daggers at where he had touched her, then to staring right into his eyes. Paul isn’t sure why he’s doing this, why he feels like he needs to see this girl again, but as an excuse, he claims that it’s been awhile since he’s been back in Liverpool, and so, perhaps-- perhaps she could be the one to show him about. It’s a pitiful attempt of avoiding that he simply wants to meet up with this girl again-- and Joan rolls her eyes and breathes out an amused laugh at such a poor front.

“Aren't I a blind bit too young fe you?” Joan would say, and while the words are obviously a dig, a tease, Paul can’t help but feel as if she had slapped him, his face growing hot and red. Tries to explain, sputtering, almost insulted, that “No-- I mean, yes, I mean, I am not--” and Joan, at first with a relatively flat expression, raises an eyebrow and slowly a smirk begins to form as she watches Paul, the Paul McCartney, fluster and stutter about like the awkward teen boys she knows and have shot down. “Am jus’ skitt'n,” Joan would give in with smile and a laugh, that caused Paul goosebumps and his stomach to lurch, because while softer and higher pitched, reminded him of someone, someone once closer than close.

“A’rite Sir Paul, I'll indulge you.” and so, while she reasons it’s to just be nice this old rocker who probably hasn’t seen a young groupie in some time, she makes it appear she’s writing down her address or phone number on his hand-- and before she makes her get away, Paul would point out she hadn’t officially given her name to him-- “No manners these kids,” Paul might tease, and the auburn haired girl, with a smile that reached her eyes and showcased her nearly straight pearlies, told him her name was Joan, Joan Winifred Stanley, to be precise. Without giving him a chance to respond to it, she bid him farewell with a playful two fingered salute-- and for a breathless moment, Paul swore he had seen John there, just for a split second.

When he finally gets himself grounded and doesn’t feel so hot anymore, he discovers that she hadn’t written her number down, nor even an address-- just simply a street name; Menlove Avenue. If he’s so interested in continuing their little encounter, he could just go up and down the street, was her reasoning. She didn’t believe he’d go through such trouble to find her again-- anyway, he’s touring, and he has a wife and kids. Weird for a man his age to want to what, make friends with a barely 18 year old bird from old dingy Liverpool? A nobody, Joan would think, almost bitterly.

I’m still putting a lot of thought into this AU, so a lot of things can change and such, especially the idea behind how Joan/John and Paul meet and begin to interact more regularly, how their relationship starts and builds and grows and changes, and of course how it might end [I’m fiddling with the idea that Joan ends up dying too, but that’s a bit too angst-y for me to really focus on so]

Of course because I’m a fucking degenerate, I would like to have a moment where the two do end up having an intense affair-- though it’s just sensitive because, despite being not real at all, I want to give some respect to Linda and his kids around that time too, because I know Paul loves them dearly. So this AU is obviously full of fucking angst-y and complication and slow burn and miscommunication.

I can’t even have my cake and eat it too in my OWN FUCKING AU. Typical.

And yeah, there’s gonna be a noticeable age-gap in this AU, so if that’s not your thing, then that’s fine. There is gonna be a lot of coming of age shit attached to that, a bit of daddy kink, Joan having obvious daddy issues [John most likely had legit mommy issues let’s be real], first times, you name it.

In the AU, Paul is slowly going to come to the outlandish idea/theory that this girl is John, or at least John’s soul reincarnated. He can’t help it-- she reminds him of John too much, it’s eerie how alike the two are that they might as well be the same person. Paul knows he must be crazy for thinking it, and hates it because it makes him feel as if he’s gone completely obsessed over John, the idea of John still being here with him.

I will include an appearance from George and Ringo, with maybe Ringo trying to tell Paul that perhaps this is his way of handling the absence of John, and Paul, trying to justify himself, partially agrees. George ends up meeting this girl, and can’t help but agree that Paul may be right, just maybe, because even George can’t deny this girl reminds him of John too, and gives off this aura that is unmistakably John. Ringo thinks both of them are daft sods, but when Ringo meets Joan, he also finds himself seeing John in her-- though Ringo never voices it. But George is careful to not agree with Paul out loud, worried it might encourage Paul in an unhealthy and potentially dangerous way.

That is, will Paul confront Joan about this and finally tell her that he believes she is John reincarnated? Paul wants too, he wants to tell her, but he’s not stupid, he knows it would probably freak the girl out and cause their budding relationship to instantly crumble and die. But whenever Paul talks about John to her once they’ve gotten close enough that he’s comfortable to divulge such intimate stories and memories about his best mate, Joan’s face would become pensive, almost a far-away look in her eyes, and would begin to comment on how she swears she’s heard these stories before, or that something even similar had happened to her to which had happened to John [even though many of the stories are personal, and kept rather private, so how would she know???]

But Joan would simply shrug off those feelings of Deja Vu, laugh and shake her head, and just move on. She didn’t like getting those feelings, like she should have memory of something but just doesn’t.

Excerpts from a fanfic I’ll never write:

It’s a mess, really. Paul falling for this young lively bird with a mean wit and soft lips and squinting eyes that desperately needed glasses, which still managed to observe and could kill someone in the heat of an argument. A girl with auburn hair that tickled his cheeks whenever they’d hug, a girl with a memorable nose, a girl who smelt of ciggies and Liverpool and vanilla and home. “You’ve got kaleidoscope eyes,” Paul would try one afternoon, sounding like a young awkward teen again trying to impress a young but experienced girl. Joan would turn those fiery eyes to him, squinting, turning to an unimpressed glower that didn’t match the flustered smile. “Sod off, old man,” Joan would reply, snubbing him as she would do, though the smile still betrayed her.

Paul would fall, fall and fall, like Alice, except there would be no floor to catch him. He would fall for Joan, because he fell for John. It’s a mess, really-- because as things escalated, Paul’s love for Joan and John began to blend and blur, and it was bad because who did Paul really love? Joan, the wild young thing who could tear him down just as easily as build him up in the same sentence and look, or John-- who could do the same but ten times over, and had. Joan though, Joan was putting pieces back together that he had tried to bury long ago, pieces that John had left the day of December 8th.

“I’m not John,” Joan would say, blunt and straight, cigarette clenched between her teeth. Paul feeling as if the air had been sucked out of his lungs, sweat breaking out on the back of his neck. “I’m Joan,” she’d continue mercilessly, taking a long drag of the fag before ripping it from between her lips, smoke swirling out between the cruel words of reality. “I’m not some catalyst for your best mate, for whatever you and him had.” Joan’s young face twisted angrily, her eyes filled with dark hurt as she glared at the old rock and roller before her. For a second, Paul saw John again, John with his sneer and his burning glare and his words of knives that dared Paul to say something back, to engage him in war. It made Paul sick, all of it. He opened his mouth to argue, to protest what she was saying, what she was claiming has been happening all these months. But he can’t, because it’s true, it’s all true, and it burns his insides up. “You love John, and, and I’m not John,” she’d say, voice cracking as she can’t hide the hurt that comes from finally speaking these truths, bringing them to the light. Her face looks broken, tears threatening to break just as her voice had-- cigarette forgotten between two delicate fingers.

When Paul could find his voice, all that could be said was the girl’s name, soft and almost like a plea; “Joan.” “Don’t,” she’d bite back like a cornered animal, lip curling in disgust from just hearing her name come from those lips that had practically seared marks along her body. But Paul didn’t, he couldn’t stop, he’d still try-- tried reaching out towards her, a hand going to grasp at her free hand by her side, but all he got was grazing the tips of his fingers to the back of hers before she whipped her hand away, body following the violent motion as she stepped back, away. Those eyes, it’s like she wanted to kill him, especially as that had broken the dam and now her cheeks were wet and she was trying not to hyperventilate and finally she dropped the cigarette as her hands began to quiver. “I don’t want to hold your hand anymore! don’t you get it?” she might as well have slapped him, stabbed him, but Paul truly believed those things would have hurt less than what she had just said to him.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read all this bullshit lol I’m really invested in this AU, and so expect more of it. I will be posting the full drawing of Joan once it’s finished, or I can’t bring myself to work on it anymore and thus claim it’s finished to the best of my abilities lol

#mclennon #mclennon au #mclennon fic idea #I've put both too much and no thought into this #this is long so brace yourselves #reincarnated au

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asfeedin · 4 years

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BTS, Beatles, Madonna, Taylor Swift, More

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 27: (L-R) Jin, Jungkook, RM, Jimin, and J-Hope of “BTS” speak onstage … [+] at iHeartRadio LIVE with BTS presented by HOT TOPIC at iHeartRadio Theater on January 27, 2020 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

Getty Images for iHeartMedia

Upbeat songs are having a surge of popularity in this time of coronavirus gloom. “Happy“ by Pharrell Williams and “Get Lucky“ by Daft Punk are among the most-played tracks of the last decade. The optimistic “Lovely Day” and “Lean On Me” by the late Bill Withers are enjoying a boost on YouTube and other file-sharing and streaming sites.

Here is a list of some musical medicine – songs that are doing well in lockdown, and some alternative cheer-up suggestions.

Recent Songs Doing Well: It is no coincidence that the song doing best in recent weeks is as upbeat as possible. Tones and I’s hit “Dance Monkey“ continues to dominate the YouTube charts and in the top slot on the Global Top Songs chart for the fifth straight week and 20th week overall with 75 million hits. It is followed by the likes of “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa, whose new collection Future Nostalgia set a number of Spotify steaming records, including the most streamed album in a day globally by a British female artist. These songs are followed by more pure pop by the likes of Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Rihanna, the Sugababes and Katy Perry. “Say So” by Doja Cat tops various happy 2020 playlists, as does “Stupid Love” by Lady Gaga. Among other tracks picking up plays: “Red Light, Green Light” by Duke Dumont, plus the slightly older songs “Green Light” by Lorde and “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake.

BTS: Songs by the K-Pop sensation have been doing well. The septet’s online concert Bang Bang Con had 50.5 million views last weekend. Even some of the group’s older and more obscure tracks are picking up hits, such as “Just One Day” off the Skool Luv Affair EP from 2014, in which each group member imagines one day with his love. The song has topped playlist ideas, and quietly racked up 24 million views on YouTube.

Be Happy: Not surprisingly, people wanting to be happy seek out songs with the word in the title. Apart from “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin is back on top of the Spotify playlists. “Happy” tops a YouTube equivalent playlist along with “Shots” by Imagine Dragons.

“Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M., which Michael Stipe said he wrote for children, is also finding its way into radio and internet playlists. The Georgia band’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” returned to Billboard charts last month, while Stripe did his own solo version, adding some tips to avoid coronavirus. Also recommended is R.E.M.’s “I’m Gonna DJ” with its insane lyric: “Death is pretty final/ I’m collecting vinyl/ I’m gonna DJ at the end of the world!”

Not everyone likes singles that force joy, but if you do, try any version of “Happy Days Are Here Again” or “Oh Happy Day,” such as that by Spiritualized. Sting’s remake of “Spread a Little Happiness,” Captain Sensible’s “Happy Talk,” “Happy Together” by The Turtles, and “Happiness” by Goldfrapp are all ripe for a comeback.

Sunny Songs: “Lovely Day” returned to the charts (along with “Lean On Me”) after the death of Withers. Lyrics with optimistic meteorological metaphors do well: “I Can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash; U2’s “Beautiful Day”; “Here Comes The Sun” or “Good Day Sunshine” by the Beatles; “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves; and “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves.

Reggae Joy: “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley has been much played for its universal message: “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing is gonna be all right.” For more reggae joy, there is always Marley’s “One Love,” his own version of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and “You Can Get It If You Really Want” by Jimmy Cliff.

Some Kind Of Wonderful: Another Cliff song, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” reminds us that even at the time of COVID-19, listeners still know that life can be wonderful. The words of Otis Redding have been ringing out online (“If you love me too, oh what a wonderful world this could be”) as well as Louis Armstrong (“I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know/ and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”). Singles such as “Wonderful Life” by Black and Hurts, two different songs, have also gained some traction.

Material Girl: Madonna’s upbeat 1980s hits such as “Holiday” and “Lucky Star” have been much mentioned in 2020 playlists.

Lightening Up: Bob Dylan’s long and downcast comeback “Murder Most Foul” has a modest 192,000 hits so far on YouTube after its surprise release amid lockdown last month. Still, the Nobel laureate’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat” and “Highway 61 Revisited” all are witty and fast-moving and recommended to raise a smile. Simon & Garfunkel are getting played for “Cecilia,” “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” the bittersweet “I Am A Rock” and Paul Simon solo tracks such as “Loves Me Like A Rock” or “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.”

For all the gl0om of “The End” and “When The Music’s Over,” Jim Morrison of The Doors had his lighter moments and “Hyacinth House” has a false cheer a bit like Elvis Costello’s later “Other Side of Summer” or The Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize?”

David Bowie provides cheer with “Fill Your Heart” and “Kooks,” though probably not “The Laughing Gnome.” His “Heroes” is one of the anthems for frontline workers, with 9 million YouTube views, and has enjoyed a new lease of life with the cover version by Motörhead racking up 36 million views.

Kanye West: Yeezy’s can-do anthem “Stronger,” and his “American Boy” with Estelle, are enjoying playlist success. So has his “Runaway,” as is the Linkin Park song of the same name.

Kids’ Stuff: The lockdown proved to be an ideal time to launch Disney+ in new regions. It was announced this month that the channel reached 50 million subscribers in just six months. A lot of its songs are uplifting for children and others: much of The Jungle Book (“The Bare Necessities”) or Mary Poppins (“Let’s Go Fly a Kite”.)

Elsewhere, listeners of all ages may enjoy Jonathan Richman’s child-like “Ice Cream Man,” “The Tag Game” and “That Summer Feeling.”

Love Songs: “Sex on Fire” by the Kings of Leon came at No 10 in the list of most-played songs of the last decade. Most people have their own personal romantic smile inducer, with those recently mentioned online including James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.” The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” has shown up in a few lists, even though it is a song about jealousy. Others include Motown classics “My Girl” by The Temptations and “My Guy” by Mary Wells; Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me”; and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.”

Good Times: Van Morrison’s “St. Dominic’s Preview” is an example of a feel-great-right-now song. Trending tracks with a similar vibe include “One Day Like This” by Elbow; “Perfect” by The The; “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” by Otis Redding; or Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.” “I Got a Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas says “I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night.” Prince has much the same sentiment in “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night,” while his “Let’s Go Crazy” has brought happiness to 15 million via YouTube. Prince died exactly four years ago, so expect his streaming numbers to rise on the anniversary.

Rock The Trouble Away: When times get tough, the tough get rocking. Think Elvis Presley, Nirvana, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, or Guns N’ Roses, if they make you punch the air. Bon Jovi has also popped up on fan playlists for COVID-19 tunes with “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “It’s My Life.” He declares: “I ain’t gonna live forever, I just want to live while I’m alive.”

‘On The Rise’ Pick-Me-Up Songs: Primal Scream has also been popping up on fans’ playlists with “Movin’ On Up” and “Loaded,” both off the album Screamadelica. Also recommended: “Up!” by Shania Twain and “The Only Way Is Up” by Yazz.

‘I Am The Greatest’ Music: Spirit-raising tracks include “We Are The Champions” by Queen, especially popular since the Bohemian Rhaposdy movie; “The Best” by Tina Turner; “So What,” by Pink; and “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga. Also recommended: “The Greatest” (Ringo Starr and Cat Power, two very different songs.)

Songs Relevant To COVID-19: “Don’t Stand So Close To Me“ by The Police has surged as lockdown became a reality, even though it is really about a school romance. Just because of the titles, “Splendid Isolation,” by Warren Zevon, “Isolation“ by Joy Division and “Isolation“ by John Lennon have all got extra plays, though none are particularly cheery.

The streaming and file-sharing sites also see boosts for defiant-mortality songs, really just based on their titles. Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” from 1978 has been a standout, an anthem for strength, with the singer taking to TikTok to rework it and inspire others to properly wash their hands.

“Stayin’ Alive” by Bee Gees and “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult have also added plays, as has “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson, with its words “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

“Resistiré” (I Will Resist), originally by Dúo Dínamico in 1988, has been redone for 2020 and has had 19 million hits on YouTube. The equally defiant “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift is also the YouTube happy songs playlist, Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocketful Of Sunshine” also raises spirts with its message “Do what you want, but you’re never gonna break me.”

More COVID-19 relevant titles boosting hits are “Work From Home” by Fifth Harmony and “Down With the Sickness” by Disturbed, which has surged 31% in digital song sales, according to Nielsen Music/ MRC Data; and “Quarantined” by At the Drive-In, which is up 70%.

COVID Spoofs: There are many memes out there but it is hard to fault Chris Mann with “My Carona,” spoofing “My Sharona,” and “Stay At Home Vogue,” parodying Madonna’s “Vogue.”

Songs In Response To The Virus: Not necessarily so bubbly are Bono’s “Let Your Love Be Known” and Randy Newman’s “Stay Away.”

A three-minute single won’t doesn’t erase the tragedy of COVID-19, its threat to jobs and economy but helps to lighten our load. As the record and radio-industry slogan says, “life sounds better to music.” Some relentlessly light tunes are madly irritating to some people and inspiring to others. Based on listening to 1,000 new albums a year and thousands of singles, here is a personal choice: “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads; “My Favorite Things” from The Sound Of Music; “Pure” by The Lightning Seeds; “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel; “Candy” by Paulo Nutini; “It’s Gonna Be Okay, Baby” by MUNA; “Song 2” by Blur; and “One More Time” by Daft Punk.

Maybe add to the playlist a few pieces of 1960s psychedelic pop such as “Itchycoo Park” or “Lazy Sunday” by the Small Faces; “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies or “Marrakesh Express” by Crosby, Stills and Nash. If you are making a playlist, hopefully these suggestions will help boost your “quarantune” spirits.

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Jenny Lewis Escapes the Void

Pitchfork March 21, 2019

After a turbulent childhood and two decades of brilliantly vulnerable songs, the L.A. idol has finally arrived at something like happiness.

By Jenn Pelly

Jenny Lewis and I are in her brown Volvo, idling outside her childhood home. On a Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, we are two blocks from Van Nuys Middle School, where Lewis once sang “Killing Me Softly” in a talent show and got suspended for flashing a peace sign in a class photo (it was mistaken for a gang symbol). We are walking distance from what used to be a Sam Goody record store on Van Nuys Boulevard, where Lewis once bought a life-changing tape of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, stoking her obsession with magnetic wordplay, as well as her first Bright Eyes CD, Fevers and Mirrors, which she quickly shared with the three men in her burgeoning indie band, Rilo Kiley, in the early 2000s.

We are not far from the bar where Lewis’ older sister, Leslie, sings in a cover band every Saturday, following in the tradition of their parents, who sang covers in a Las Vegas lounge act called Love’s Way in the 1970s. And that strip-mall pub is just across from the movie theater where Lewis and her mother once conspired to steal a cardboard cutout of Lewis’ 13-year-old self—a souvenir from when, as one of the busiest child actors of her generation, she starred alongside Fred Savage in the 1989 video game flick The Wizard.

Lewis left the Valley alone when she was 16 and vowed to never go back. “That was my number one goal: just to get out,” she tells me now, at 43. But on the occasion of her fourth solo record, On the Line, I asked for a tour of her past life, and here we are—Lewis in a royal blue jumpsuit, with electric blue sneakers and eyeliner to match; me, staring up at the rainbow of buttons fastened to the sun visor of her passenger seat, a collage that includes Bob Dylan, a peace sign, and a hot-orange sad face.

From the driver’s seat, behind her oversized shades, Lewis mentions the Bob Marley blacklight poster that once hung in her Van Nuys bedroom, and I imagine the scores of teenage bedroom walls that have made space for her own iconic image through the years. Lewis’ catalog of cleverly morbid, storytelling songs with Rilo Kiley and the Watson Twins ushered a generation of young listeners through suburban ennui and personal becoming—like a wise older sister we could visit on our iPods, offering an example of how to do something smart and cool with your sadness and your solitude.

In the mid-2000s, Lewis was like an indie rock Joni Mitchell for the soul-bearing Livejournal era, or an emo Dylan, the poet laureate of AIM away messages. Words—some cryptic, some elegant, some brutally, achingly direct—burst from the edges of her diaristic songs, with a dash of Didion-esque deadpan for good measure. It’s no surprise that Lewis’ earliest bedroom recordings were just Casio beats and what she describes as “raps.” Lewis was the first feminine voice I ever encountered leading a band outside the mainstream, with a sound that initially befuddled my ears because it was, in that overwhelmingly male indie era, so rare: a woman’s plainspoken voice.

Cruising around L.A. together, my mind maps the California of her lyrics. What does it mean for the palm trees to “bow their heads”? What becomes of the cheating, California-bound man in Rilo Kiley’s filmic “Does He Love You”—the soulful rave-up where Lewis belted the heroic mantra, “I am flawed if I’m not free!”? But my most pressing question, the one I must ask Lewis: Is California still “a recipe for a black hole,” as she sang on 2001’s “Pictures of Success”? “I guess it’s all the void,” she tells me straight. “It’s not really geographical. That’s what you find out on your adventures. It doesn’t really matter where you go. You accompany yourself there.”

The main destination of our Van Nuys excursion is the small ranch home of Lewis’ youth—or rather, homes, as there are two, practically adjacent. It’s a little complicated, I learn, as are many things with Lewis’ upbringing.

Lewis was born in Vegas on Elvis Presley’s birthday. In 1976, her parents and sister were living out of suitcases on the road, playing Carpenters and Sonny and Cher songs at casinos like the Sands, the Mint, and the Tropicana. “My mom was so pregnant but she would not miss a show,” recalls Leslie, who was 8 at the time. “Jenny would be kicking her on stage, and I remember seeing my mom flinch. I think that was Jenny saying, ‘Let me out, I want to sing!’”

Soon after Lewis was born, her parents divorced, and her father, Eddie Gordon, left the family and continued his career as one of the world’s leading harmonica virtuosos. Lewis’ mother, Linda, moved back to her native Los Angeles, working three jobs to rebuild a life with her daughters. At 2-and-a-half years old, Lewis was discovered by the powerful Hollywood agent Iris Burton (a young Drew Barrymore and the Olsen Twins were among her clients) after the toddler spontaneously wandered over to her table in a restaurant.

When Lewis was 5, she was already supporting Leslie and their mom with her commercial and TV acting, and they bought their humble first home, the one we’re visiting. “But we always used to dream about the house on the corner,” Lewis says, slowly circling the block, “so then my mom bought that house, too.” It’s two doors down, looks pretty similar—why dream of it? “Because it was right there,” Lewis says, “and it was nicer than the one we had!” (A 1992 L.A. Times headline dubbed Lewis “A Teen-Age Actress With 3 Mortgages”—she owned a townhouse in North Hollywood by then as well—calling her “the youngest member of the United Homeowners Association.”) “I know it’s confusing,” Lewis says. “This is part of the simulation; this is craziness. Why did we also want that house?” She erupts into a cackle. “None of this makes any fucking sense.”

In life as in her songs, Lewis is a consummate storyteller, mindful of how tiny details make a great tale. In the car, for instance, she tells me about the time she played Lucille Ball’s granddaughter on the notoriously bad 1986 sitcom “Life With Lucy.” It was the last show Lucy ever starred in, and it was canceled before the first season even finished. The mood was blue, but a wrap party was still planned, and Lewis’ mother convinced Lucy to have the gathering at their little house in Van Nuys. “So Lucy rolled up with her two dogs,” Lewis remembers. “She walked in the front door, looked around, and said, ‘What a dump!’”

Lewis’ mother typically attracted fascinating characters to the house—like the producers of the TV special “Circus of the Stars,” who trained Lewis in trapeze; or “Fantasy Island” star Hervé Villechaize, who came over for a scammy “Pyramid Party”; or The Exorcist writer William Peter Blatty. One year on Halloween, at the recommendation of the family’s illusionist friend—who, according to Leslie, levitated Jenny in their house—her mother invited over Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd’s brother Peter, who was himself a real-life ghost buster. Peter planned to “check out the levels” of the house.

Intrigued by the Lewis’ paranormal investigation, the local news showed up. Back then, Lewis was hanging out with fellow child actors Sarah Gilbert, Toby Maguire, and Leonardo DiCaprio—who also came through to scope things out. Recalling the ghost-busting scene, Lewis says, “They came over and set up their vague, infrared equipment and they captured some sort of reading coming down the hallway and going into my childhood bedroom.”

I ask Lewis if the ghostbusters’ findings felt accurate. “Well, totally,” she says. “Something was going on. We always had weird vibes in the house. Very dark vibes.”

In person, Lewis’ temperament is one of constant cheer. She radiates positivity, takes bong rips in her kitchen, says “dope” and “vibe” often. This sunny disposition is occasionally punctuated by looks of deep, welling concern for others—as if she is on the brink of tears for humanity. Still, she calls herself a “total skeptic,” and tells me that show business trained her, early on, to master the art of getting along. “I didn’t ever wanna be one of the dicks on set—like in a family situation, where one person can really fuck up Thanksgiving,” she says, before veering into more existential territory. “We all know we’re careening towards the end of humanity. I just wanna do my work and hang out with my people.”

It’s only later, while sipping Modelos at the dining room table of her quaint ranch house in the hills of Studio City, that Lewis reveals the source of her childhood home’s “dark vibes” was her mother’s lifelong heroin addiction. “It is painful to go back there,” Lewis tells me. “I get a weird feeling. I don’t know if the ghostbusters could have detected it, but there was some kind of energy that was not conducive to survival. So when I left, I left.”

“My mom was an addict my entire life, and it was a fucking rollercoaster,” she continues. “It lent itself to some amazing situations, but it was manic as fuck, and there were drugs constantly. It’s a lifestyle, and it’s a community to grow up around. I feel grateful for having been witness to some pretty outrageous human behavior from a young age. Nothing really shocks me.”

Leslie attests to their complicated home environment, and recalls “stepping over people trying to find my books to go to school.” She became a mother figure to Jenny, taking her little sister to school on her bicycle and making sure she did her homework. Leslie was just a teenager when she put it together that their mother was pushing Jenny’s acting money into buying drugs and, ultimately, selling them. “It was a terrible realization for both Jenny and I to have,” Leslie says. “I give our mom a lot of credit for being resourceful prior to that. We probably wouldn’t be talking to you today if she hadn’t been so inventive and so diligent. But it escalated.”

When Jenny quit acting in her early 20s, Leslie wasn’t surprised. “I remember her finally having the burden lifted off her shoulders, that she didn’t need to support our mom anymore, and she didn’t need to be told what to do anymore—she was free,” Leslie says. “Her agents were calling me, asking ‘What the hell’s going on? We’re booking her in all this stuff.’ It was a big deal for her to walk away. But she had to do it. I think she didn’t want to be saying other people’s words anymore.” Leslie recalls the bubbly dialogue Lewis would have to recite on screen and adds, “That’s just not where she was at in her life.”

Focusing on her own words, Lewis arrived instead at death, disease, loneliness, deflated dreams. Rilo Kiley’s 2002 breakthrough The Execution of All Things opens with a hushed monologue from Lewis about the melting ground. On the title track, she sings genially of a will to “murder what matters to you most and move on to your neighbors and kids.” Disguised by twee album art, Rilo Kiley created an indie rock uncanny valley, a sweet-sung pop moroseness of Morrissey-like proportions.

The centerpiece of Execution is a gritted-teeth fight song called “A Better Son/Daughter.” It bursts from a music-box twinkle to a monumental marching-band wallop, from a depressed paralysis to refurbished self-worth, from “your mother […] calling you insane and high, swearing it’s different this time” to “not giving in to the cries and wails of the Valley below.” In the past, Lewis has rarely discussed how her own biography fits into her songs, but the sense of hard-earned triumph and conviction powering this particular song is unequivocal. When I ask what might have inspired its climax—“But the lows are so extreme/That the good seems fucking cheap”—she simply remarks, “I mean everything I say.”

In 2006, Lewis wrote the fablistic title ballad of her solo masterpiece, Rabbit Fur Coat, to convey the feeling of her story—a mother waitressing on welfare in the Valley, the promise of a working child, a fortune that fades—if not the concrete details, which, she says, don’t really matter. But the haunting “Rabbit Fur Coat” laid her mythology bare. “I became a hundred-thousand-dollar kid/When I was old enough to realize/Wiped the dust from my mother’s eyes,” Lewis sings, the last line quivering into a moment of piercing a capella. “Is all this for that rabbit fur coat?”

I ask Lewis where she thinks her optimism comes from, and she just says “survival.” This summarizes an equation of emotional resilience that more women than not are tasked with solving young. “Jenny has basically been on her own her entire life,” says her best friend, the musician Morgan Nagler. “She’s the definition of buoyant.”

It’s hard to imagine rock in 2019 without Lewis’ radical honesty, without her hyper-lyrical mix of the sweet and the sinister. “In the early 2000s, the really big indie artists were Bright Eyes and Death Cab for Cutie, and Jenny was one of the only women fronting that kind of music,” says Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee. “But in the next generation after that in indie music, there are so many women. How could she not have been a huge part of that?”

Crutchfield, now an indie figurehead in her own right, says no songwriter has directly influenced her more than Lewis. When she was still a 20-year-old punk living in Alabama, Crutchfield got the cover of The Execution of All Things tattooed prominently on her arm. Lewis’ odd, poppy, poetic songs had a musicality she hadn’t found in punk, but they still spoke to her as an outcast.

Seeing Rilo Kiley play for the first time—at a Birmingham venue she would go on to play herself—was a watershed moment. Crutchfield and her two sisters stood front row center, sang every word, and cried. “It was so huge to see a woman on stage holding a guitar, being powerful but still very feminine,” Crutchfield says. “That was my first foray into seeing that as a possibility for myself.” She recalls the exact outfit Lewis wore that night: red leather skirt, knee socks, T-shirt tucked in, and “a belt that was like a ruler—something you would see on a teacher.”

When Eva Hendricks, singer of sugarrushing New York pop-rock band Charly Bliss, was still in high school, she would spend days writing Lewis’ lyrics in her notebooks over and over, becoming attuned to the virtues of unsparing openness in songwriting. “Listening to that music unlocked something I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to understand about myself,” says Hendricks, who also appreciated how Lewis never downplayed her femininity. She distinctly recalls going to a Lewis record signing around 2014’s The Voyager: “I waited in line and when it got to be my turn, the only thing I could think to say was, ‘I can’t believe that your voice is coming out of a real human being.’”

Harmony Tividad, of Girlpool, was 12 the first time she heard Rilo Kiley, and calls Execution’s “The Good That Won’t Come Out” one of her favorite songs of all time. “That song is more like a diary entry, and vulnerable in this way that feels like a secret,” Tividad says. The unvarnished album opener peaks with Lewis speak-singing, “You say I choose sadness, that it never once has chosen me/Maybe you’re right.”

“I was a really emotional, awkward young person and felt kind of socially trapped,” Tividad, now 23, reflects. “I was a freak. And that song is about exploring all of this stuff inside of yourself that you can’t really show people. It’s about isolation, which I have felt a lot. This music was a soundtrack to that recalibration of personhood. It was very integral in me developing a sense of self.”

Lewis has resided in the quiet show-biz neighborhood of Studio City—which she refers to as “Stud City”—for 11 years. She mentions that her current home is still, technically, located in the Valley, and shoots me a conspiratorial look: “Don’t tell anyone.” There are retro-looking landlines all around the house (cell service is poor), and eye-catching vintage Christmas bulbs strung in the kitchen window. The house was previously owned by the late Disney animator Art Stevens, who worked on Fantasia and Peter Pan. Standing amid dozens of plants in the little green room at the heart of her home, sipping a coconut La Croix, Lewis enthuses about Mort Garson’s obscure 1976 electronic record, called Mother Earth’s Plantasia. The whole place has an air of magic.

Its infrastructure has been unchanged for decades, which stuck out to a location scout for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Charles Manson film, who knocked on the door one day and asked to take some photos. He did not return, but his business card is on Lewis’ refrigerator, alongside one from legendary songwriter Van Dyke Parks, and a Bob Dylan backstage pass. The fridge is mostly covered with hospital stickers from when Lewis was visiting her mom, who died of cancer in 2017, and inspired her new song “Little White Dove.”

The other big change in Lewis’ life was the dissolution of her 12-year relationship with singer-songwriter Jonathan Rice—after which, to shake up the energy of the house, Lewis’ friend and photographer Autumn de Wilde painted the walls of her bedroom a striking shade of rose. Directly outside the door is a life-size photo of her best friend Morgan, and the window of her bedroom, spanning the right wall, looks out to a built-in pool. The sill holds carefully arranged objects: ruby slippers, her passport, a candle, a plethora of sunglasses, and a violet notebook labeled “Lewis homework for On the Line.”

Talking with Lewis, the despairing elephant in the room is Ryan Adams, who played on the album. Two weeks before we meet, Adams was accused of sexual misconduct and emotional manipulation from musician Phoebe Bridgers, his ex-wife Mandy Moore, and others, including a woman who was allegedly 14 at the time, prompting a criminal investigation by the FBI. “The allegations are so serious and shocking and really fucked up, and I was so sad on so many levels when I heard,” Lewis tells me. “I hate that he’s on this album, but you can’t rewrite how things went. We started the record together two years ago, and he worked on it—we were in the studio for five days. Then he pretty much bounced, and I had to finish the album by myself.”

“This is part of my lifelong catalog,” Lewis continues. “The album is an extension of that thing that started back at my mom’s house—I had to save myself and my music, and get away from the toxicity. Ultimately, it’s me and my songs. I began in my bedroom with a tape recorder, and it was like my own fantasy world. I’ve taken all these weird turns in my life—with mostly men, sometimes women—but I feel like I’m finally back to that place, which is autonomy.”

Though On the Line features an impressive array of players—Beck, Rolling Stones producer Don Was, Dylan drummer Jim Keltner, literally Ringo Starr—the album marks the first time Lewis has penned an album of songs solo, without co-writers, since Rabbit Fur Coat. “I’m not fully myself when I’m co-writing,” Lewis admits, describing a directness to the songs she’s penned with men, like Rilo Kiley’s “Portions for Foxes,” as opposed to songs she’s written alone, like “Silver Lining.” “With the songs I’ve co-written, it’s almost as if there’s a trimming of the emotional, rambling, poetic hysteria, which is where I live when I’m writing by myself,” Lewis says. “I don’t think of songs structurally. It’s a feeling, and I’m chasing the feeling.”

The cover of On the Line is a close-up of Lewis’ chest in an ornate blue gown. She chose the snapshot intuitively, from a pile of Polaroids taken by de Wilde, and only later recognized it as a deep homage to her mom, who once dressed similarly in Vegas and had an identical mole between her breasts. “Over the years I’ve become more comfortable in my skin,” Lewis says. “It’s funny to feel good in your skin when it’s not quite as tight as it used to be.”

With her voice sounding more refined than ever, On the Line finds Lewis singing about getting head in a black Corvette, feeling “wicked,” and—on the devastatingly delicate “Taffy”—sending nudes to a lover she knows will leave. “There’s a lot of fantasy in my songs,” Lewis tells me. “Sadly, I don’t get that much action. I should have gotten more.” She says she has always written about sex as “character projection,” but when she did so on Rilo Kiley’s final album, 2007’s Under the Black Light, it polarized fans. Lewis recalls one journalist who made a flow chart claiming to correlate the declining quality of the band’s music and the shrinking size of her hot pants. “It was so puritanical,” she says. But as the borders between the underground, mainstream, and genre have broken down, the artists who Lewis inspired are continuing to make space for more expansive expressions of sexuality.

The new record’s sound is warm and sleek, and when Lewis says she listened primarily to Kanye’s recent work while mixing it, I recall yet another wacky tale she shared with me at her house: Once, circa 2008, Lewis chanced upon Kanye at an airport. He played her a cut from 808s and Heartbreaks, and she played him her sprawling psych-rock triptych “The Next Messiah.”

Listening to On the Line, I find myself fixated on “Wasted Youth,” which uses a jaunty piano arrangement to deliver its neatly bleak refrain: “I wasted my youth on a poppy.” Lewis then slyly draws a line from the drugs to our numbing daily realities. When she sings, “Everybody knows we’re in trouble/Doo doo doo doo doo/Candy Crush,” I can feel my phone festering in my palm.

“I feel like that song is more about Candy Crush than heroin, if that’s even fucking possible,” Lewis says. “That’s the fuckin’ end: Candy Crush. It’s terrifying. I feel like my brain has been taken over by one of those weird fungi that grow out of the head of an ant in the rainforest. It’s like we’re spracked out on our Instagrams. It makes me feel like shit even talking about it.”

By the bridge, however, Lewis offers a blunt jolt of hope: “We’re all here, then we’re gone/Do something while your heart is thumping!” That’s a surprisingly heartening sentiment from a songwriter who has referred to herself as “a walking corpse,” who once made a springy emo anthem entitled “Jenny, You’re Barely Alive.”

“I’m in my 40s and something has shifted,” she says, when I ask what she does these days to help herself through. “Maybe you’re more aware of your own mortality, and have the balls to walk away from things, and be untethered, and do the reflection and the hard work—getting your ass out of bed and walking a couple miles, going to the gym, talking to a therapist.”

Lewis says her relationships with her female friends have deepened profoundly in recent years. “Maybe this is what we’re picking up on: the collective consciousness,” she says. “Women are talking to one another more. Reaching out to my girlfriends has helped me through these lessons that keep coming up. It’s the same lesson, where I’m like, ‘How am I in this situation with this fucking person that’s crazy… again? Why am I here and why have I stayed this long?’ And then my girlfriends are there to go: ‘Get the fuck out of there!’” (She is clear that this is not about her relationship with Rice, but rather about other romantic and working partnerships.)

I tell Lewis that these get-me-out predicaments remind me of her own song, “Godspeed,” from 2008’s Acid Tongue, which I had been revisiting quite a bit lately—a golden-hour piano ballad from one woman to another, a paean to “keep the lighthouse in sight,” to get “up and out of his house,” because “no man should treat you like he do.” “I wrote that for my friend,” Lewis says. “But maybe I wrote it for myself now.”

By the end of my time at Lewis’ house, the sun has set and we’re sitting in near total darkness, save for the neon pink glow of one of her many landlines. “You have to make a choice to be happy, or try to be,” Lewis insists. “Sometimes that involves moving away from people that you love, or that hurt you, or that are toxic. You have to find your bliss in life, right?”

I almost can’t believe that the same woman who provided me with my personal millennial-burnout anthems is asking me about unfettered joy—the artist who wrote the lyrics “I do this thing where I think I’m real sick, but I won’t go to the doctor to find out about it” and “I’m a modern girl but I fold in half so easily when I put myself in the picture of success” and “It must be nice to finish when you’re dead.” But I nod; it’s true.

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hetmusic · 8 years

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Interview | Albin Lee Medlau | HumanHuman

First appearing eight months ago with a demo version of viral single “Lou Lou”, the gravelly voiced Albin Lee Meldau was discovered by Hillydilly.com with this glowing recommendation: “Having a unique voice is such a big factor in music today, and when you've the kind of vocals that Sweden's Albin Lee Meldau has, standing out and making a good impression isn't too hard at all” (via Hillydilly). Since making his official debut one month ago, this Swedish singer-songwriter has blown up with over 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and racking up 38k listens to “Lou Lou” on SoundCloud, and he is currently jet-setting across the globe to play live for a new throng of adoring fans.

What you’ll find in this interview is that beneath the raw emotion and folk-pop aesthetic is an honest-to-a-fault individual who quite simply wants to makes the best music he can. Here, we discuss what it means to go solo, an appreciation for imperfection, a love for retro pop music and a few things that don’t quite gel with one of Scandinavia’s fastest rising artists.

First of all, can you tell me a little about yourself and your musical background?

Okay, I’m a 28-year-old musician from Gothenburg in Sweden. I play pop music, straight from the heart. For me, the essential part is the story, so I try to keep myself as broad as possible. My background comes from playing on the street, playing in churches, weddings, funerals, all kinds of places. I’ve played soul for six years, I had a band called Magnolia, and so one year ago I started doing my own thing. That’s basically it, I’ve been playing a lot and busking a lot. Oh, and my parents are both singers, so I come from a musical family. I also used to play the trumpet.

Oh, do you ever play the trumpet now?

No, it’s really hard. It’s something you need to practice like all the time, so it’s not something that you can do when you feel like it. Now, I play the guitar, sing and produce.

You said you made the switch from soul to pop?

Yeah, I used to play quite old-school 60s/70s music and now I try to do more of a pop, indie thing. It’s more modern, because I don’t want to do that retro music anymore. I wanted to do my own thing.

Is there anything that influenced that change?

Well, it’s two different things: this is a diary that I’m in control of and a band is a relationship between people. It’s just a different thing. I guess it’s life that has influenced this change. I want to do things with my life, I can’t be waiting for six other people, and it’s very hard for bands also these days. No one wants to sign bands these days unless they’re 100% sure. I started this one year ago and now to be where I am today, it’s very well done, and if I had to do that as a band, I don’t think I would have managed to get this far; it’s very hard to break bands. That’s probably why, and I don’t really like waiting around or sharing or having to listen to people as well [laughs]. No, no, I just mean I’m not a very good team player in that sense. I like to be the one in charge, thus the interviews and being the front of the whole project. I’ve been the back-up singer and the singer in that band [Magnolia] for a long time, I played all kinds of instruments with them, and back-up singing is really what I used to do. I wanted to be a solo singer-songwriter.

You described this project then as your “diary”?

Basically, yes. I’m a young, diligent artist and it is about love and it is a diary. It doesn’t have to be about myself, it can be about any sort of story, but it’s definitely my diary, yeah. It’s just what it is. Most people live their lives and all people can express emotion, but this is my way of doing it. It’s a lot of emotion in one little diary, and hopefully I can release it as soon as possible. I released a little video on Mahogany Sessions the other day for “Darling”, for the next tune that’s coming, and there will be lots more songs in the near future.

Well, I’ll look forward to that, but the song we’ve been listening to a lot recently is “Lou Lou”. It’s a very emotional song, what does it mean to you?

That’s a very dark love story about a girl I used to know when I was young, it’s really… well I will leave it up to the listener to decide what it’s about. It’s filled with emotion as something people could probably relate to. It’s a short, dark, obscure, Scandic-noir love story. Horrible song for me, personally, I don’t like it one bit, because it’s so sad and I hear it all the time! Just wait, I want to release the next song, and the next one, and then the album so there will be plenty of stories.

“It’s a short, dark, obscure, Scandic-noir love story.”

Is “Lou Lou” one that you’d perhaps struggle to play live?

Look, I love all my babies. The worst thing I know is when you don’t want to listen to a song, but if you skipped one song on [Marvin Gaye’s album] Let’s Get It On then you miss the whole story. But no, don’t worry about that. This is the first song, the first one I ever recorded, and I recorded that version for two hundred quid in a cellar, that’s just how we did it. There will be more songs coming up with fantastic producers like Jimmy Napes, Justin Koch, Bjorn Yttling Rich Cooper, Ben Burrows, Bastian Langebaek, Eg White - these are fantastic producers, grammy winners, and Justin even wrote video games. These are great people and so there will be great songs.

I would say that one thing that bloggers and listeners have picked up on is your unique vocal, is that something that came naturally to you or has it been developed over time?

I’ve been singing my whole life. I sang in choirs and I’ve been a backup singer in reggae, blues and soul bands my whole life. I’m not saying I’ve got a unique vocal, but yes I do have a voice that sounds a certain way, and you can hear that it’s me straight away, which is something I’m very proud of, but am I a fantastic singer?! There’s so many fantastic singers today, it’s ridiculous, but for me it’s what the story is all about. I’m a really big Bob Dylan fan, and a fan of people who can’t really sing, at least that’s what other people say, but that’s not what it’s about for me. The voice itself, the sound of it, is obviously something I’ve been working on, obviously, it’s my instrument. I get quite bored of listening to Beyonce and Aretha [Franklin], but yeah the singing is a big part, but some songs that whisper, those might be the good ones. Big vocals don’t really interest me, it’s the message and emotion. Perfection is not attractive at all. You need to find some kind of scar, there needs to be some weird little thing that makes it interesting. That’s probably what I think about when I sing, that it shouldn’t be perfect, it shouldn’t too much.

I completely agree, I much prefer an emotional performance, it’s not about whether it’s technically correct.

Yeah, but then you see someone like Elvis, who I think is the best singer ever, because he could combine the two - perfection and emotion. It’s really a very hard question, I’ve done this a long time, I’m a singer. I wish I could be a poet instead, and maybe a model, maybe a blogger in fashion, and I want to be a producer!

Well we often talk about how artists self-produce and how there’s more producers than ever now, would that be a goal of yours?

Well, I worked with Bjorn Yttling on the first track, “Lou Lou”. Some songs have been produced by others and some I’ve worked on. It doesn’t really matter, whatever the song becomes is the most important thing. If I do a better job then I’ll pick my version and if someone else does the better job I’ll pick their version. I would never say that I’m not open-minded to working with geniuses like them.

Obviously, you’re from Sweden, a country synonymous with pop music, do you think that’s still true today?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are there any contemporary Swedish artists that you look to or take note of?

First Aid Kit are great singers and “My Silver Lining” is a fantastic song. Lykke Li is fantastic, a fantastic woman. Earlier this year I was a support act for Aurora, she’s a fantastic singer and artist. Basically, everyone is very good! But what do I listen to? I listen to Bob Marley, The Wailers, Elvis Presley, The Temptations, but I don’t really listen to that other stuff.

So, you’re not really a modern pop fan?

Yes, some songs are fantastic, but when it comes down to it, I don’t really have time for anyone else’s music really but my own. When I have the time I’ll listen to Bach or somethin I’ve been really longing for, I don’t have the time to search for new music since this year has been so hectic. I do like First Aid Kit however, I think they’re very good. The new Kendrick [Lamar] album, I thought that was good. Some things that come up like the Drake thing with Rihanna [referencing “Work”], you go out and you can’t really avoid it, I think it’s hilarious, but it’s not what I would listen to. Hmmm… what do I listen to. The Tallest Man On Earth is very good, Leon Bridges had a really good song, Alabama Shakes was fine. I can’t really remember! There’s millions of songs that come every week and it’s just… stuff. I can’t keep up with it. I just concentrate on writing good music. Oh, recently I found this mix of Elvis Presley’s “Crying in the Chapel” with The Wailers. I like weird stuff.

Oh wow, a little bit obscure, but cool.

Obscure, yes. Most things I would listen to right now aren’t on playlists. I don’t like doing my own playlists, I can’t be bothered, like going to one artist and changing. I also can’t understand the idea of someone else doing the playlist for you, so I just go to an artists and press shuffle! Then it has to be an artists where all the songs are good, so Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Buena Vista Social Club. I want my albums to be like that. No one should press skip or swipe to the next one because they feel the story is not good enough.

Moving on from music that you listen to, to your own career. In your opinion, what’s the best thing about being a musician? Is it writing, recording, touring?

Oh, I haven’t been touring, this is very new this thing. It’s not what you’d picture it to be, of course it’s nice not to worry as much as I used to, but it’s not nice having to get up really early every morning [laughs]. It’s not too bad, that’s probably the worst thing about being a professional musician. This is my fifth year of being a professional musician, but I’ve been busking and playing music for a long time. I mean, what is the best thing about work? And that’s when you work! I like performing, I love writing music, I like working. It’s also very nice when people listen to your song and when people all around the world want to tell you that they love your thing, that is of course fantastic. It was a very big honour for me when Quentin Tarantino said it was good and requested a mixtape. Stuff like that happens to me now. It’s the feeling that anything could happen. I love football and sports in general, and this is a sport for me, something that I need to evolve. I can’t stand people who don’t work hard, I hate lazy people. As long as I’m working, I’m happy.

“It was a very big honour for me when Quentin Tarantino said it was good and requested a mixtape.”

That’s great. So, from everything that’ you’ve been writing over the past year, do you have a favourite song?

No! That might change from week to day, and you never know which one it’s going to be. Sometimes you think “this is my favourite song” and then you just hate it. Also, all the songs have got different stories about them, some songs might be brilliant, but it’s such a sad story that you don’t really want to listen to it.

You’ve given us lots of hints that more music is coming soon, so what’s the next release going to sound like? What’s the story behind it?

I don’t know... I’m with Sony Music here in the Nordics, so we’ll see what they say and we’ll see how the streams are going and what sort of plan they’ve got for me. I’m playing a few festivals here, I’m going to The Great Escape, and I’m going to Cape Town to work with fashion. I’m going to London, New York, L.A. and all kinds of places in the next few weeks.

A lot to look forward to this year then?

Oh, I hope so! I mean we’re doing a good job. I’ve got a fantastic team, a brilliant band and a good song. I’m very, very happy that people like it and just being able to survive on doing music, I feel like a fraud here! You pinch yourself and wonder when you’re going to wake up.

https://humanhuman.com/articles/interiew-albin-lee-meldau

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independentartistbuzz · 7 years

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Indie 5-0: 5 Questions with John Dylan

Multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire, John Dylan, has had music running through his veins before he was even born, his parents playing the likes of Elvis Costello, Bob Marley and Stevie Ray Vaughn whilst he was still in the womb. After previously having exhibited his work through the genre-defying band Terrene, (Produced by Phil Ek: The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Built to Spill). John has now gone solo, to focus on his talents as a songwriter. His upcoming album Peripheral Drift Illusion is set for a fall release.

1. Tell us about "Get Beyond." What was the inspiration behind your sound and the video’s imagery?

Well I was at a very low point in my life during the writing of this song. I had been laid off, my house was broken into and I was robbed, my car was stolen, my girlfriend’s car was broken into, I was filing for bankruptcy and the house was ultimately foreclosed on. I had recently gotten a diagnosis of chronic anxiety. The layoff was precipitated by the big financial crash, and it was 2009 and there was this feeling of darkness in my head about my life and the world… But 2009 was also a year the Beatles got a little press. The remastered discography came out that year and also their video game, which was really fun.

I was already a huge fan and have been since I was in grade school. Ever since I heard the jaunty bassline in “All My Loving.” And even though I am most into their experimental stuff, their political stuff, and their more mature work generally, there is just something about Paul’s bass playing that I just loved as a kid and still love now; it’s like he is expressing pure happiness and acceptance through just very intentional bass playing. It just connects.

And that was sort of the beginning of the idea. I was so low, I was just reaching for anything that made me feel better, something that had that real, “from when I was a kid,” true comfort and joy in it. And it just started with that... “bounce.”

I didn’t take anything else from it, just that feeling like, what if there was a bassline that just made people feel better?

The video tries to go from where the song starts (“in haven bed I stay”) to where it finishes (“you must prepare to let your real self show; get beyond!”) visually. It starts with 2-tone xeroxed-looking black and white. Then progresses to vector-traced slow-motion. Then it progresses to psychedelic vector-traced slow-motion. Then you have “gotten beyond” and are floating in space and are free of your pain. I have always wanted to get into vector tracing ever since A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life came out. It turns out it requires more manual work than you might realize for it to look like that. Little variations in the color averaging from frame to frame creates flicker and I couldn’t figure out a way to solve that, programmatically. Still, if you watch it in fullscreen in very high quality you get a sense of the effect pretty well. Not so much if it’s zoomed out or low-bitrate or non-HD; then it basically just looks posterized.

2. How did the collaboration with legendary Beatles artist Klaus Voormann come about?

I was trying to do some collage work for the album art. I have this super cheap laser printer/scanner that basically functions like a xerox machine and I was trying to do black and white surreal collages, maybe a bit inspired by punk flyers. I have a compendium of Cometbus’s work, the book about 924 Gilman by Brian Edge, and even a book called Punk: An Aesthetic that compiles all kinds of brilliant work.

But, I found my efforts to be a bit clumsy, and realized that, speaking of the Beatles, what I really was imagining was something more surrealist, like the cover for The Beatles’ Revolver, that I have always loved. I have it as a magnet. I also have a t-shirt that has the Revolver artwork except it’s a Simpsons shirt and The Beatles are replaced by The B-Sharps and the collage is full of Simpsons references.

So I emailed Klaus and I told him about me, and what I was doing, and work of his that I really like. I told him about the themes of the album, and what I was thinking about, and of course shared the music with him. And he said “yes.” He has been very kind.

As for the punk collage work, my favorite artist in that area was, and is, Jesse Michaels, the lead singer for Operation Ivy, among other bands. So I also wrote him about doing a piece for an upcoming single, and he said yes, too.

I like working with musicians who make art because I feel like they get it in this really cool way and there’s this homemade, earnest feeling to what they make. They’re multi-talented, working from their home. Coincidentally, since I recorded and performed this album at home by myself, that suits the project very well.

3. You’ve played in some notable bands and we were curious how it feels do everything solo on your forthcoming album.

With no offense meant to the members of Terrene I feel like individual musicians who specialize in an instrument can often see a song in a very “this is my part” kind of way. We would go into the studio, and people are just like “alright, my guitar part: done.” “Bass: finished.” But I was always the stickler trying to get all the pieces to add up. So I would stay behind and be like “WE’RE NOT DONE.” And do overdubs. Too many overdubs.

Then, I went too far the other way; the final product of Terrene’s album, through no fault of Phil Ek, who is a wonderful producer, was very sonically crowded with ideas. Way too many layers of stuff on songs that are far too simple to be carrying them. When you read the criticism of “overproduced,” that’s a tough one.

So, I gave myself a rule: Don’t do any recordings that a 5-piece band couldn’t pull off. And, though you would need a very talented band to do it, I stuck to it on this record!

Mars Accelerator was more circumspect, we would sit for hours talking about arrangements and trying to make it work. At the best of times, that’s how it’s supposed to work, at least for the kind of music I’m interested in making; everybody thinking like a songwriter and arranger. Something that gets better if you listen to it a second time and try to find the little things. You can feel the difference in something where all the pieces were thought through. Unfortunately, Mars suffered from the other problem with working with bands: it was hard to get everyone together and commit time. People moved away and… That’s where we’re at. Maybe we’ll resume soon. I would love to. I think playing with them made my music a lot more complex and hard-edged. I am not averse to distortion and more angular, difficult ideas, the way I was during Terrene.

Doing it yourself is empowering. But you have to strike this balance where you discipline yourself and not fall in love with every idea you have, yet you also love yourself enough to call something “done” when it’s done.

4. What artists are you listening to currently?

I actually keep an excellent bunch of playlists up on my YouTube page that I strongly suggest people check out.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAgntbIlnXuy4FfX1u6FRBA

I always love to use my megaphone to highlight good music, and I share thousands of songs on there of stuff I’m listening to right now. Yearly best-ofs going back to 2008. Plus my “writer’s block cure” playlist of stuff that you can put in the background and write to, without it infecting your internal wordstream. My day job is as a writer, you see.

Every once in awhile I get an idea for a themed playlist. A recent one was my favorite female-fronted music. I need to add a lot more to that, actually.

5. What's your favorite instrument to play in the studio and favorite to play live (if different) and why?

In the studio I really like playing drums. Drums were my first instrument, I started playing when I was about 4 or so. I was sitting in my car seat and my parents realized I was hitting the safety bar in time with the music and getting into it. The viscerality of the drum performance sets the tone for the entire track. I am often humming very loudly when I play, which gets picked up on microphones sometimes, because I have the music in my head playing so loud and I want to make a noise over the sound of the drums -- with the drums, mixed into the drums. It’s just a pure state of creation.

Live, I really enjoy playing bass. I feel like the audience starts to “get” the song once the bass player drives the song home. It’s not too hard for me to play, so I can just groove out. Live drums would be too much pressure to be as fun. It’s very different keeping time so other musicians can play to you vs. laying down an idea on tape.

So of course live, I play guitar. Hah!

Find John Dylan Online:

Homepage

Facebook

Instagram

BandCamp / Fan Club

SoundCloud

Twitter

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#john dylan

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back-and-totheleft · 5 years

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Val, Jim, Bob & Madonna

Is it true you first heard The Doors while you were serving in Vietnam? “I think so. It could have been on acid in Australia while I was on R&R, but I’m not sure. It was very psychedelic music but it was also clear poetic verse, you know? The guy was imitating Rimbaud. He was very clear.”

Did listening to The Doors and taking acid go together? Were you looking to expand your mind? “After I’d been wounded a couple of times I took some time off in Australia. There was quite a bit of acid-taking going on there because they were selling it in Kings Cross in Sydney. It was a case of: well, what do we have to lose? You’re going back to the war! You think: ‘What the hell, I might as well see it one time.’”

Did you identify with Jim Morrison? “Well, he was much more advanced than I was. I was 21 and still learning about the world. I was in Vietnam and I was a teacher and considered myself an explorer, but he was a public success already. I looked up to him. He was like, I guess, what Mick Jagger was for you guys in Britain. I grew up on classical music as part of a classically conservative education. I didn’t really hear much rock radio. Elvis Presley was looked down on as a greaseball in my society, so it was all new to me. The black music was unbelievable, people like The Supremes and Smokey Robinson. You heard some of that in Platoon, which was sort of a homage to the music which was trying to keep us human. It was very important over there.” [...]

Val Kilmer is incredible as Morrison, not just for the way he looks and acts but also the way he sounds. Was he always the front runner for that part? “I can’t tell you enough how hard he worked and how intuitive he was. He chased me down. He’d wanted to be in Platoon but he was impossible. During the auditions he was so out there. He was sort of eccentric. There are a lot of eccentric actors, but he was really out there. He did a strange audition for Elias [the character eventually played by Willem Dafoe]. He shot his own audition. He was lying on a table doing his kind of, you know, Jim Morrison imitation. It wasn’t right at all for that movie, because he wasn’t military. Then when The Doors happened, again he popped up in my life and he’d already prepared a tape. It wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but it was certainly promising. I think we went on looking for a month or two, and it became clear that he had the best approach. I mean, he was the strangest guy. There was another guy, Dave Brock, who was in a band that was going around LA imitating Morrison [The Doors tribute group Wild Child]. He was very good, actually. I was thinking about using him. There were a couple of other actors, but nobody quite like Val. Paul Rothschild, who had been close to Jim as his producer, really worked with Val. It was really beautifully done. They synced as much as they could, maybe 60% of the voice. We mixed it. I think it’s 40% Jim, 60% Val.”

It’s remarkable that Kilmer’s voice was close enough to Morrison’s that you could do that. “It also allowed us to shoot live, which was unbelievable. We could do several takes, as long as his voice held out. That was another issue, of course: fatigue. You couldn’t push him like you could push an opera star. He’s got lungs and he’s going to get tired. Of course Val, being of an extravagant mentality, would melodramatise his fatigue. That drove everyone a little bit crazy. He had so many massages. The massage bill on that film was enormous. $20,000, at least, in massages. For a big guy, and strong-looking, he wasn’t that strong. He started looking tired.”

He goes through a physical transformation in the film, from the chiselled rock god to the flab of excess. “Oh yeah, and he was a method actor in the sense that he had to live that role. He lived in the leathers all the time. You know, it’s not easy to work with a method actor sometimes. It can be exhausting.” [...]

Are there other musicians you’d like to make a biopic about? “Yeah, I tried twice. They’re sad stories. There’s so many contentious factors, it’s impossibly difficult. I worked for a long time on Evita, the musical. I worked with Rice and Webber. We were very close, and I thought my script was good. We were ready to go. We went twice, once with Meryl [Streep] and then once with Michelle Pfeiffer. But Michelle was a big star and she didn’t want to be that far away from her baby in LA. To reset this thing in Mexico over Argentina was very complicated. It couldn’t be done at a price. There was always one thing or another. Then Madonna I wasn’t interested in at all. She can’t act. I hated the movie, which I’m co-credited for, because there’s no dancing in it. There’s no movement, there’s nothing physical. It’s stilted. I just hated it. I also worked for a long time on Bob Marley. I had the rights to Rita’s book, his wife. It was a different type of approach than The Doors approach. It was the love story approach. Her version. She was the first one, and he was committed to her. He was still in touch with her at the end. I know a lot of people had hard feelings for her, but it’s such a divided group with all the [Marley] kids. Chris Blackwell of Island Records killed it. We had enough songs to do it, but we didn’t have them all. We came close. We could have done it. We had a script that was decent. It was getting there.”

How did you feel about Wayne’s World 2 spoofing The Doors‘ acid trip scene with the naked Indian in the desert? “I vaguely remember being mocked. Ben Stiller did something about it too.”

Is it vaguely flattering to be pastiched like that? “No! They were making fun of me back then. I’m easy to make fun of because I’m kind of a classical character. I take the acid, I want to do the acid, you know, right? I’m pretty straight in some ways, and I think that’s why it’s easy to mock me. The English would say that I have no sense of irony.”

There’s a sincerity to your films, would be another way of putting it. “Yeah, and that’s all you can do because that’s the basis on which you make the movies. That’s where your energy comes from. If you’re not honest about that. In other words, I was able to make those movies only because of that, I think...When you live in this business, you’re sometimes thinking about what other people think more than what you’re thinking. It’s too incestuous. You need to be unselfconscious. That’s what I don’t like about the movie business in general these days. It feels like movies are always like referencing another movie. Everything’s postmodern. It’s just annoying. I want a pure experience. If I want to see a Bible movie then I want to see a real believer’s movie, I don’t want to see some wiseass.”

I think even going back to something like Scarface, there’s always been a straightforwardness to your story-telling. “That’s the best part of me, I think. When you think too much you get all fucked up.”

-Kevin EG Perry, “Oliver Stone on dropping acid during ‘Nam, his failed Bob Marley biopic and the psychedelic allure of Jim Morrison,” NME, July 22 2019 [x]

#oliver stone #the doors #jim morrison #madonna #evita #bob marley #rita marley #wayne's world 2 #nme #music #lsd

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newyorkisartsyfartsy · 5 years

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Arts & Culture Final

By: Courtney Tapper

Taylor Swift is Stuck in the Past

Taylor Swift’s repetitious song themes and outdated female perspectives render her unfavorable.

First it was “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me”. Then it was “Forever & Always” and “Fifteen”. Then, “Mine” and “The Story Of Us”. Song after song. Boy after boy. Relationship after relationship. For her first few songs, the music of Taylor Swift was catchy and it felt relatable as an average girly middle school-aged teen. Now, I think it’s outdated. While there will always be songs about relationships and break ups and heart ache, I just think there is more to not only music but life, than just how sad a boy made you feel.

Starting her music career as a country artist, Taylor Swift immediately did not appeal to me. As one who thinks country music is generally very redundant in terms of instrumental usage, song topics, and the voices of various country artists, Swift did not stand out to me.

Then, as she started to gain success in the pop genre, I began to hear her more often whether it was on the radio, shopping in stores, or my friends’ 16thbirthday parties. But the constant, “woe is me” attitude that permeates a majority of her music simply could not resonate with me as enjoyable or influential.

In “This Love”, Swift sings about a love that she has never felt before and how this bond is the strongest she has ever known. That alone, can create a great piece of music. It’s real, has passion, and it’s something people can relate to. But lyrics like “Lanterns burning, flickered in the mind only you/But you were still gone, gone, gone/Been losing grip, on sinking ships/You showed up, just in time” imply that she was completely consumed by this one person and him “showing up just in time” is what saved her from a potential life of misery. While love can definitely be all consuming and life can seem miserable without the person you love, I don’t exactly feel that the message she is trying to portray is admirable.

The idea that you were about to crumble before the man finally stepped in and swooped you off your feet just shows that her happiness relied heavily on the reciprocated love of her partner. Which I don’t think is healthy in any sort of relationship. Particularly, in a world where women are still being treated as less than to men (in numerous ways) and are constantly having to prove that they are equal, a song like this just really sets back the work women are doing to become independent and powerful beings. Many of her songs share similar storylines to this one where the man holds the power, which frankly just do not work in favor of the progression of women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw&list=PL1CbxROoA2JiVzg9zu_AkVHZR9S8mHhzh

Question #2:

Influence Beyond Music

Bob Marley’s popularity in the reggae community enables him to show his strengths in other areas

Growing up in a Jamaican family, it’s pretty much impossible to listen to music in the house without hearing Bob Marley at some point. As one of main artists who brought reggae into mainstream popularity, Bob Marley truly has made a name for himself in the music community. Creating the Wailers (a music group comprised of Marley and his friends) he was able to become one of the most beloved artists of the reggae genre.

Marley’s childhood friend, nicknamed “Bunny” inspired Marley to learn how to play the guitar, as they both shared a love for music. The two ended up living together some time later in Kingston, Jamaica. Arriving in Kingston in the late 1950s, Marley lived in Trench Town, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. He struggled in poverty, but he found inspiration in the music around him. Trench Town had a number of successful local performers and was considered the “Motown of Jamaica”. Marley liked, and found influence from, such artists as Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and the Drifters.

The first time I heard Bob Marley I was at my grandparents’ house. I always recognized his voice since it was his music that was played the most out of the reggae artists they would listen to. But the first song that caught my attention was one of his more popular songs, “Three Little Birds”. The song brought such peace and joy to my family because of its positive lyricism. Lyrics like “Don’t worry about a thing/Cause every little thing is gonna be alright” reminded us that no matter what struggled we were going through, worrying is not a solution and everything in fact will be alright. Between the relaxed vibes that reggae often gives off already, with such a carefree and easygoing message, this song would bring peace all around.

One of my favorite songs as a kid “Buffalo Soldier”, while it has the same catchy and relaxed essence of his other songs. The meaning behind this song brings light to a major issue. When I was younger, I had no idea what a buffalo soldier. As I grew older and decided to do research, I learned that these were a segregated regiment of black cavalry fighters during the American campaign to rid the West of "Indians" so that colonizers could take the lands from Native Americans. Ironically, many of the soldiers were slaves taken from Africa.

While Bob Marley unfortunately passed away in 1981 from cancer that quickly spread throughout his body, his legacy lives on. While Bob Marley’s musical strides have influenced my taste in music, I also have been impacted by his actions of peace. His organization, the Bob Marley Foundation, is a great example of his devotion to helping others, especially those from developing nations. In June of 1978, he was awarded Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations. Also, in February of 1981, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. His philosophies as a man of peace and equality are characteristics that I not only admired, but that I strive to exude today.

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

Fun But Serious #1

Music with a Message

During the music unit of the semester, we spoke about what makes good music, what makes it successful, and what makes certain music appeal to certain people. Personally, I have always loved music that makes me feel something. If the music itself doesn’t make me feel a certain way but the lyrics do, I’ll probably like it. If the lyrics don’t really make me feel a certain way but the music does, I’ll probably like it. If the music and the lyrics both make me feel something, then I’ll probably love it.

That’s exactly what “We the People…” by A Tribe Called Quest, does for me. It has both. From a musical standpoint the rap song has a consistent drum beat in the background, creating a sort of style and momentum that makes me enjoy it right off the bat. The song also takes time to completely syncopate the tempo in which catches you by surprise and then throws you right back into the same rhythm that you became comfortable with. The sound of what one can presume to be police sirens during the song, also creates an atmosphere of context and setting as to where this type of music is taking place – which for me created a musical experience that is much more wholesome.

As for lyricism, the song is very political. As a commentary on society and the numerous inequalities that can be found just about anywhere, the creative boundaries of this song are definitely pushed in the best way. With lines like, “All you Black folks, you must go/All you Mexicans, you must go/And all you poor folks, you must go/Muslims and gays/Boy, we hate your ways/So all you bad folks, you must go,” many different marginalized groups are recognized in this song. It leaves you thinking, “can they say that?” or “was that too far?” Song like this, that is so brutally truthful they can make people, is the epitome of art to me. With an ironic title like “We the People”, the group starts by mocking the very the document that our society is based on and proceeds to explain how the ideas of it are not being followed and how times have drastically changed.

Fun But Serious #1

Growth in Knowledge of Reporting on Arts & Culture

At the start of the semester, I was very much under the impression that I did not know much about the arts and culture world. In terms of reporting, I was very unfamiliar as to how to go about that sort of reporting style, but I was much more familiar with the arts than I believed. In terms of music, I have a pretty interesting view of what makes good music where I’m not completely stuck on one group, artist or genre. I think my variety in music taste worked to my benefit in that unit.

As for film and television my knowledge was definitely lacking, as I truly have not seen many recent films of television programs. When I consume visual media, it is often through YouTube, Netflix, or it is an older film that I had seen before. Being able to be introduced to films in class that are more recent, I was able to see the growth in the film industry and was convinced that there are some movies I would love to see.

As for theater, I have always had a love of theater and other performing arts. Having a class where I was required to see a show was not only fun but also very educational. I was able to enjoy a production that I wanted to see, but then was able to look at it in a different way with the tools that I had learned and analyze it from a more educated lens.

Overall, I think arts and culture reporting was a medium that I always enjoyed reading but never thought I would write about. But during this semester, I’ve been able to learn a lot more about what it takes to write in that specific medium and that it is something I might be interested in writing about for the future. The semester has made writing about arts and culture more tangible and less of a sort of unrealistic stretch.

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joementa · 7 years

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Week Of June 12, 2017.

Here is a list of some of the music I’ve been listening to the past week. Format: musician – album title, or musician – “song title” (album title).

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound

Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up

Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?

Mark Lanegan Band – Gargoyle

Katy Perry – Witness

The Killers – “The Man”

Lady Gaga – “The Cure”

Justin Townes Earle – Kids In The Street

Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band – Olympiastadion, Helsinki, FI 7/31/12

The Pretenders – Packed!

The Killers – Hot Fuss

The Killers – Sam’s Town

The Killers – “Runaways” (Battle Born)

Prince – 4Ever

James Brown – Revolution Of The Mind: Live At the Apollo, Volume 3

Iron & Wine – Archives Series Volume 3

Some really great albums were released this week, and I think you need to listen to both of them as soon as you can. Royal Blood is a rockin’ band, and I love their new album How Did We Get So Dark? And both The Nashville Sound by Jason Isbell and Crack-Up by the Fleet Foxes are great albums, and are even better on vinyl. I think you are doing both albums a severe disservice if you don’t get them on vinyl. The Nashville Sound finds Jason Isbell doing what he always does – writing great songs. The topics are a little different here compared with his past couple albums (in my opinion), but they don’t suffer. And there are some real rockers here. DO NOT miss “Hope the High Road”. Wow. What a rocker! And the album is just stunning on vinyl. The packaging is fantastic and of course it sounds really great.

Then we have the latest Fleet Foxes album Crack-Up. Again, you need to get this on vinyl. It sounds incredible, and there are some liner notes in here that you just need to have. If you are listening to it digitally, you don’t get the line notes (at least not in a traditional way), and for this album, you want to have them. I think they are essential materials to go along with the music itself. I’m still digesting the album – I’ve only listened to it one time – but there are definitely some themes that run throughout the album. I wouldn’t be surprised if I consider this a concept album after I spend some more time with it. Go to your nearest record store as soon as you can, and buy both The Nashville Sound and Crack-Up on vinyl. You will not regret it.

Radiohead is celebrating the 20th anniversary of OK Computer with an extra disc of b-sides and 3 unreleased songs, due to be released on July 7. Rolling Stone recently published a pretty interest article about the making of the album. You can read that article right here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/exclusive-thom-yorke-and-radiohead-on-ok-computer-w484570. I really like Radiohead, but I wouldn’t say I’m very familiar with OK Computer. So I’m really looking forward to this reissue, and to spending some more time with the album.

Iron & Wine is one of my favorite musicians. Last summer, he made a great album with Jesca Hoop, called Love Letter For Fire. If you didn’t listen to it, you should. It was one of my favorite albums of last year. Unfortunately I made a mistake and decided to skip their tour last summer. Why, you might ask? I have no clue. I don’t remember what I did the night of their local show, which means I should have gone to their show. Consider that a lesson learned. Because Iron & Wine has a new album coming out on August 25, called Beast Epic. I haven’t heard anything from the album yet, but I can’t imagine it will be anything but beautiful. The pre-order info is right here. The deluxe LP comes with 5 bonus songs not available on the album-proper. You know what’s even more awesome? He’s doing a tour! And like I said, I’ve learned my lesson. I will not be missing this tour. The tour dates are right here, and I think all of the shows are on sale already. I’ve already got my ticket. John Moreland is opening the show that I’m going to. He’s an incredible songwriter, and singer, too. John Moreland and Iron & Wine in one show. Now that’s a great bill!

Another musician I really love is Damien Jurado. He’s doing a 50 state tour, with a focus on playing intimate locations, not just traditional music venues. The first two states will be Ohio and Indiana. Below are the dates for these two states. I’ve even included a link to buy tickets for each of the shows. See how easy I’ve made this for you? If you will be in the area for any of these shows, I highly encourage that you go.

6/14 – Vandalia, OH - Warehouse 4 Coffee (tix)

6/15 – Cincinnati, OH - Woodward Theatre (tix)

6/16 – Newark, OH - The Ballroom at Thirty One West (tix)

6/17 – Canton, OH - Deli (tix)

6/18 – Youngstown, OH - Historian Records Co. (tix)

6/18 – Akron, OH - Gestalt Artist Collective @ HiveMind (tix)

6/20 – Indianapolis, IN - Indy Alliance Church (tix)

6/22 – Griffith, IN - Space Revival (tix)

6/23 – South Bend, IN - Langlab (tix)

6/24 – Fort Wayne, IN - The Brass Rail (tix)

You can go here to listen to Damien Jurado talk about this project. http://t.ymlp116.com/bmjhaiaebeyjapabuuatauhysw/click.php

Here’s his full statement on the project:

"It started as a dream as I drove past so many neighborhoods and towns on my way the "major market." I have watched our choice to connect to the experience in front of us dwindle away, only to be replaced with connection to a screen. We are told what is success, sold what is the "it" thing, and fed what people think we should know. It's not that any of those are bad, but on their own, they are nothing. We are nothing without the connection to one another. We are blessed to live in a beautiful world FULL of incredible people. If that isn't worth getting together and celebrating, I don't know what is. Join me in celebrating our country and the things that not only make us the same but also the beauty of our differences."

If you’ve never seen him live before, you’re really missing out. He has such a beautiful voice, and his songs are incredible. Check out his song “Museum Of Flight”.

After the great shows last weekend, I’ve been on a huge Killers kick this week. It’s been really exciting, because I feel like they’re kick-starting my summer. They also just announced a new album, called Wonderful Wonderful, due later this year, and also released a new song this week called “The Man.” I’ve listened to it many times already, and will continue to do so.

I recently read a really interesting article in the New Yorker about the label XL Recordings. You should check it out – the link to the article is right here. They’re a really cool label that’s doing a lot of good things with music. Also, they have a poster in their main office with this AWESOME message on it. How perfect is this?!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/richard-russells-xl-recordings-empire

“There is a proper procedure for taking advantage of any investment. Music, for example. Buying music is an investment. To get the maximum you must LISTEN TO IT FOR THE FIRST TIME UNDER OPTIMUM CONDITIONS. Not in your car or on a portable player through a headset. Take it home. Get rid of all distractions, (even her or him). Turn off your cell phone. Turn off everything that rings or beeps or rattles or whistles. Make yourself comfortable. Play your CD. LISTEN all the way through. Think about what you got. Think about who would appreciate this investment. Decide if there is someone to share this with. Turn it on again. Enjoy Yourself.”

The first leg of my summer shows is coming to a close, and I only had one show this past week. However, it was a great one. I went to see Bob Dylan at the beautiful Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. I’ve wanted to get to that venue before, but the scheduling never worked. I’m so glad I finally got there, because it is one of the best venues for a show. It’s very old and charming, and it’s a true theatre. Make sure you get there sometime. You won’t regret it. And Port Chester has some really great restaurants within walking distance of the venue.

Dylan’s show was great. Despite not saying a word to the audience, I could tell he was having a great time. He was smiling throughout the night, and during the Sinatra/American Standards, he was dancing and shimmying and swaying across the stage. He was having fun. I’ve seen Dylan many times, and it’s not unusual for him to not say anything to the audience. I don’t think he’s a man of many extra words. I saw an interview with another musician once, and although I’m forgetting his name, he was talking about touring with Dylan. He saw Dylan backstage and asked him what he’d been up to lately. Dylan looked at him warmly, said “traveling”, and continued on his way. I love that story!

Watching Dylan always makes me think of my musical heroes from when I was a kid. All of them started putting out music way before I was born, and most of them are no longer alive – Hank Williams, John Lennon, Elvis, Bob Marley. I wasn’t able to see them. Dylan, though, is one of the few that are still alive and kicking, and still making great music. Go and check out one of his shows some time. You won’t regret it. His band is incredible. Check out Charlie Sexton’s guitar leads. Or Donnie Herron, who plays beautiful pedal steel and also plays so sweetly on the violin. Or the drummer, George Receli. He gets a great sound! Check out his playing on “Pay In Blood”. So good! They’re like a real jazz band. Not necessarily the genre, but the approach. The group is the music. That’s how jazz musicians approach music. Dylan’s band does the same thing. Dylan’s a legend that I get to see each year. That’s very special.

Speaking of Dylan, did you listen to his speech where he accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature? If not, you can listen to it right here. I think it’s pretty interesting that some are accusing him of lifting some of his speech from the SparkNotes to Moby Dick. If it’s true, I’m not sure why it’s very surprising. Who would turn to something like SparkNotes to get inspired for a speech about Literature? Bob Dylan, that’s who.

#music #vinyl #live music #the killers #brandon flowers #jason isbell #fleet foxes #bob dylan #dylan #the pretenders #john moreland #iron and wine #prince #bruce springsteen #damien jurado #royal blood #radiohead

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