Songs

Tinker Toy

Tinker Toy – A Playlist Of Love

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I have a playlist called Tinker Toy; do you remember those?

You could build so much from the hub-and-spoke simplicity of the pieces. You had to be careful though because if you tried to build something too big without first establishing a strong base, your creation would crumple down on top of itself under its own weight.

I thought of the songs that would go on this playlist as the wooden hubs. These were the strongest parts of the structure and they would be represented by the songs I shared with various partners in various relationships over the years.

The spindly wooden pieces connecting the hubs would represent the passage of time and how some hubs were well supported because they had a lot of spindly bits underneath them and other hubs would be hanging way out there, sticking out from the main structure at odd angles, without the benefit that time and experience can give all relationships.

Maybe I put too much thought into a playlist title. Maybe this is all a stretch. But it means something to me and having just celebrated Valentine’s Day with my forever Valentine last night, I wanted to take a stroll down memory lane a bit and, if nothing else, these wooden sticks and wheels can provide the structure for this post. 🙂

Bif Naked – Lucky

I’ve written about this song before when we were doing the CanRock Advent calendar and it takes me back to my first date with a girl I dated for a short while in University.

Shooting pool, eating nachos, flirting hard and this song comes on and we both just kind of sit there and look at each other, knowing that the friendship we had been forming was taking a huge step that night.

We kissed before we got back to the car and this song would be played regularly throughout our relationship. It’s just sexy. And seeing Bif Naked at Call The Office in London perform it live just made it that much more special to us.

Even though we only dated for a few months, that relationship and this song are one of the base pieces of the whole tinker toy tower. I learned a lot from that relationship and as much as it hurt when it ended, it made me a better person for it.

 

Coldplay – The Scientist

Don’t worry, we aren’t getting melodramatic and emo about every song on this list. I’m also not going to detail every one of the 26 songs.

This one is simply fun because it came on one day and I proceeded to just keep living my life and move backwards during the entire song.

It’s become one of those running couple jokes with my Forever Valentine that only the people in the couple think is charming.

 

Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow You Into The Dark

This one holds a lot of sentimental value and was on a number of playlists and mix tapes shared by my first wife and I. Not only a very pretty song but we truly believed we’d be together until the very end.

We also traveled to both Bangkok and Calgary together, so that particular lyric was always one that made the song a little special for us.

 

Grandaddy – Jed’s Other Poem

Another early oughts soundtrack staple for me. The lyrics have nothing to do at all with any relationship and my significant other at the time didn’t even particularly like the song very much, but if you are looking for a song to be in your headphones as you walk around a neighbourhood contemplating love and life during trying times, man this is the song for you.

Killer video as well. Such a simple idea executed very well.

 

Billy Bragg – The Fourteenth Of February

The irony of this being our song, is that the song is about a man who wished he had something to help him remember the moment he met his lover while my first wife and I had an actual photograph from pretty close to the moment we met.

At a house party I met her and fell for her instantly. The problem was she was dating someone else at the time.

I drunkenly confessed to a friend how I felt and how I vowed to date her one day and she grabbed my camera and said we are getting a picture of tonight. There we are in the picture, together, on either side of the guy she was dating, roughly two hours after meeting each other for the first time.

It is bittersweet indeed to hear the song now, but life moves on and I am happier than I have ever been with my Forever Valentine.

Some chapters need to be written so that you can understand the characters better later on in the story.

It’s a beautiful song and I can speak from experience that it makes an amazing song choice for a first dance at a wedding. The lyrics and pace are perfect and chances are many of your guests will be hearing it for the first time and will be charmed by it.

Just don’t let the fact that the first marriage didn’t last spoil it for you. 🙂

The Living Years

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“Say it loud, say it clear. You can listen as well as you hear.”

The epic chorus from this power ballad by Mike + The Mechanics still hits after all these years.

 

Not a lot of subtext to uncover in this one, nor is there any huge backstory of which I was previously unaware. You can’t tell your dad the things you’ve wanted to tell him if he’s already passed on.

I grew up believing this. This song has always hit me right in the feels and I remember it being number one on the radio.

Maybe Mike Rutherford knows something I don’t. Maybe the messaging we are always fed through popular culture, that family is with you right to the end, and in the end, that’s all you have… that you need to treasure your family because regret will seep in when it’s too late… maybe these messages are true and real and maybe there are people who shake their heads at those who just won’t listen.

But I have developed another narrative, one that has made my life infinitely better over the past decade or so and, so far, zero regrets.

Maybe there is a line with family, and maybe, once crossed, you can never go back.

Maybe forgiving, even if you are not forgetting, opens a door behind which lies more hurt and disappointment.

Maybe instead of mourning the family you’ve lost, you make your own family out of the people who are actually positive influences in your life. Who you know will be there for you, thick or thin.

This song still hits me hard because I’m a sucker for a story steeped in nostalgia and the idea of a son living with that kind of regret is truly heart-breaking, but I no longer personally identify with the song, nor believe in its core message.

Sometimes, family goes too far and you are better off without them.

As it turns out, you can choose your family.

Let’s normalize that message.

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Okay, whoa, touched a nerve there and that was not what I was really intending to write when I came to this song on my list, I was prepared to dig into the story behind the song as I usually do, but this is what came out.

Hard to lighten the mood of this post, it’s not a light song.

So let’s keep on emoting, shall we.

Check out these two reacting to all of the feels when they hear the song for the first time.

Pause at 2:32 when they both realize exactly what the song is about.

 

I’m not saying the message and the warning of future regret is not something people should hear… this is a powerful message and a powerful song delivering it.

All I’m saying is if that is not your story, that’s completely fine as well.

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Further Reading

For a fairly comprehensive look at the story behind the song, which is normally what I would have written about here, check out this post from Sterogum’s series – The Number Ones.

’39

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If pressed for my top three favourite Queen songs, which seems like a very strange thing to press someone about, I would have put ’39 somewhere in the top three for sure. It’s a beautiful little song that is easy to sing along to and gets in my head for a while every time I hear it.


We put on A Night at the Opera this morning as we were relaxing in the living room and it had been some time since I had heard the whole album. When “’39” came on, for the first time in my life I found myself really wondering about the lyrics.

Because of the jangly nature of the folk tune, and despite the Queen-being-Queen over the top choir bits, my ears had always just assumed the song told a story of pioneers traveling back in 1939. Reading up on it now, the song has become even more interesting to me.

First, before we go into the meaning, here is the song if you’re not immediately familiar with it:

 

The song has been described as “sci-fi skiffle”, so my first port of call is to learn what the hell “skiffle” is and, knowing now, I’m embarrassed I didn’t know the term earlier.

“Skiffle is a musical genre that draws from American folk, blues, country, bluegrass, jazz, and jug bands. In the early-to-mid twentieth century, skiffle bands originated in different parts of the United States and were often tied to working-class, Black American blues and jazz scenes—such as those of New Orleans.” (quote source and further history).

So, the skiffle part I get now and the sci-fi immediately makes sense. The over the top choir bits I mentioned a moment ago definitely resonate as being other-worldly in that camp, 70’s sci-fi way that makes you think of robots that are clearly made up of painted cardboard.

Now that my brain was firing along the sci-fi range, I was very confused about what I thought the song was about.

I’m a terrible lyric-listener and have no shame in admitting that; a good and catchy tune can wash over any lyrics for me and I’ll sing along happily, sometimes not really paying attention to what the words are saying.

The song is about an astronaut and his crew who go on what is, for them, a year long journey to find a new home, with Earth dying. They return only to find that 100 years have passed on Earth and everyone they knew, including the astronaut’s love, is long gone and the crew are roughly the same age as their grandchildren.

I knew Brian May (who wrote the song and performs the lead vocals on the album) had studied astrophysics; I had no idea he’d ever written a song that told a story about time dilation. This morning the scope and scale of this song for me went from covered wagons on dusty trails to the sweeping cosmic dust of the universe that has separated two lovers. May does an excellent introduction to the song in this live performance here from 2014.

Now that we all know this together (even if I am late to the party), have a listen again, this time live with Freddie Mercury singing lead in Houston in 1977. I LOVE the over the top choir bits in this performance.

 

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Tape The Night YouTube Cover Battle

I love someone who does a good cover and there are no shortage of covers for this song. I watch them all so you don’t have to and here are a few hits and misses in our first Tape The Night YouTube Cover Battle:

This means the winner of our first Tape The Night YouTube Cover Battle, for her rendition of “’39”, is Brandi Carlile.

The sci-fi is not shied away from, her twang, especially towards the end is pitch perfect and I always love a female artist who takes the lower part in the harmonies and it’s just overall beautifully done.

 

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Last but not least, for no particular reason than because I love a good audio/visual mashup, here is “’39′” laced over clips from Interstellar.

 

Now that I know what this song is about and I can appreciate the unique artistic blend of the musical genres even more, this is not only, in my view, the best song on the album (yes, even beating out “You’re My Best Friend” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”) but it’s officially at the top of the list as best Queen song of them all.

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Further Reading: 

I read an article, no longer online, that makes an interesting point about the relevance of the song in today’s modern world.

“The ideological gulf between generations has likely never been wider. The news is inescapable; faced with the constant drumbeat of the internet and the 24-hour news cycle, after just a year, one feels 100 years older.”

HeartBlog

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After writing only one post in the last three years, the jury was out on if I’d ever return to this format as a creative outlet.

I hadn’t even scratched the surface of the songs, soundtracks and setlists that had shaped me before the stress of life took over and I didn’t have the bandwidth to keep at this. I also made the mistake of going public with it, sharing posts and links across my other social media channels, and when people didn’t respond the way I had hoped, I started to question if I was doing anything of value here.

I had a breakdown, not because of the blog, but because work took over and completely consumed my life and I had the most stressful year of my career. Then I recovered, and then we had the pandemic, which quickly became the most stressful year of my career.

I took time off during those early days of the pandemic, when I was still fragile from the previous stresses, to remember what made me feel balanced in my life and what made me happy. The answer was simple: writing. I picked up the novel I had been working on since 2007 and I finished writing it. I started writing short stories again. I’ve just recently started a comic strip.

And all the while, Tape The Night just sat here, collecting internet dust. I’d renew the hosting every year thinking, “I should really pick that up again,” and on March 10th of this year, I almost did.

On March 10th I read that Lou Ottens, the inventor of the cassette tape, had died, having outlived his invention by a good decade (at least according to the Oxford English Dictionary).

For the last month my mind has been returning again and again to this blog and why I started it in the first place.

As we face this third wave of the pandemic and I am once again feeling knocked back a step or two, it’s time to get back to writing more regularly and, in the case of this blog, I write about what I want to learn about. The music that has been the soundtrack to my life has another level to it that I’m not conscious of when I’m singing with the windows rolled down or dancing in the kitchen. The stories behind the songs and the music makers, the meanings of the lyrics I have sung for decades without really stopping to think about them, this is why this site exists.

And I don’t care if I’m the only one who ever ends up reading this.

Tape The Night exists because I want to write it more than I want people to read it.

Having finally returned to that rationale and feeling that balance and synchronicity again inside me, all I can say to the nobody who will read this is: it’s good to be back.

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Weezer – Red Album

For me it goes Blue, Red, Pinkerton, in order, for top three Weezer albums, and one of the reasons for that is the album features the song, “Heart Songs”.

 

 

“Heart Songs” is one of Rivers’ most personal songs and everything about the song fills me up with the same emotions and sense of purpose that this blog does.

Nostalgia, inspiration, remembering who you were and how you came to be the person you are now… these are the themes I find extremely fulfilling to explore.

When the song hits the Nirvana verse and Rivers’ channels his best Cobain when he sings “had a baby on it”, I get that sense of elation… that’s the only word for it… because we already feel we know the end of the story he has been telling in the early verses and that moment is the validation that we’ve been right all along.

Rivers on Nirvana being such a huge inspiration and when he first heard Nirvana (from Rolling Stone):

“I was working at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in the spring of ’91, and another cashier, Har­old, said, “Hey, Rivers, I know something you might like. It’s called Nirvana.” As soon as I heard “Mom and Dad went to a show” [from “Sliver”], I immediately started dancing around. It was exactly how I felt, and they were putting it to music. It inspired me to do the same thing.”

And then, after the Nirvana lyrics, the song brings the listener, you and I, right into it and we become a part of the story.

Make a record of our own

A song comes on the radio and now people go “This is the song”

It’s what I like to call, “The Bastian Moment”.

That Bastian Moment

Weezer at the Warehouse was my first major concert. It was 1994, the Blue Album was exploding, the Happy Days infused video for “Buddy Holly” was on constant play on MuchMusic and Weezer was coming to Toronto that August. I had just turned 17 and had seen a number of bands and shows during the day (my first actual concert was The Pursuit of Happiness playing for free on a Saturday afternoon at the corner of Yonge and Shuter the year previous), but Weezer would be my first time going out with friends, at night, to a rock show.

God bless the Internet – here’s the setlist.

I had never seen anything like it. The lights, the crowd, the wristbands for beers I couldn’t get, this was my first show.

And they killed it. I don’t think I stopped smiling for three days, which was right about when my ears stopped ringing.

To bring it all back, the Blue Album is FILLED with my own personal Heart Songs that I’m sure will populate future posts on this blog.

And I didn’t even know this prior to writing, but Weezer doesn’t play “Heart Songs“ live, so you won’t hear it at one of their shows.

I did come across this interview below with Rivers where there are a number of performances; fast-forward to the 24 minute mark to hear him speak about “Heart Songs” and then hear a mashup of “Heart Songs” and “In The Garage” that just rocks.

 

 

And that is why I write here: not only to remember what has shaped me and revel in the glow of nostalgia, but to peel back the layers a little and hopefully discover something new along the way.

This is my HeartBlog.

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Further Reading: Into The Lyrics

Check out the Genius lyrics for all the references Rivers makes in the song.

The Lady Is A Tramp

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There was a day this week at work where we started listening to some Sinatra and I’ve had him echoing around in my head ever since.

This is a good thing.

We listened through many of the classics before switching up the day to something else and the one song we never got to was my absolute favourite of his, his rendition of The Lady Is A Tramp.

Not only is the song intelligently written, using the language of the times to scoff at the upper crusts of society and empower women to be themselves, be free and do what they like, but musically and lyrically the song is genius in how it allows performers to really show personality and be playful while still delivering sharp commentary.

This gets missed by many who only know the Sinatra version but it’s easier to hear when it’s being sung by a woman.

Originally written for the film Babes In Arms, the lyrics are “about a down-to earth lady who scorns such affectations as arriving late at the theatre, going to crap games with royalty and wearing furs to Harlem nightclubs.  Because the singer refuses to behave pretentiously, other women label her a tramp…” (Great American Songbook)

Here is the original version of the song.

And one of the more well known versions sung by Ella Fitzgerald:

Now, flip this and put a male singer in and many initially react the same way Rita Hayworth does when Sinatra sings this directly to her in a club in Pal Joey, a role for which he won a Golden Globe and put his stamp on the classic tune.

Enter the duet.

The song as sung above in Pal Joey is meant to woo, attract and impress.  Put Frank and Ella together and you have, put simply, an absolute celebration of friendship and respect.

And they pick up the tempo a hell of a lot and have some REAL fun with the song.

I’ll come right back to Sinatra in a moment, because I haven’t even scratched the surface yet on my absolute favourite thing about this song…

It’s worth posting Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s duet of the tune as well.  They take the traditional approach and lyrics of Frank and Ella and update it and, you can see it, the friendship between these two is so genuine.  It’s beautiful to watch.

The song is a classic and I love the duets, but let’s move finally onto the most well-known version of the song, Sinatra’s studio recording.

And this is where I switch to thinking about the song and the lyrics and focus on the voice of the legend himself.

When we were sitting in the office after the Sinatra session and I mentioned we hadn’t heard The Lady Is A Tramp, I also claimed the song holds the single truest note of music ever sung, in my humble opinion.

Whenever I hear it I wait for it.  One word.  One note.  And I get chills when he hits it; honest to goodness chills every time.

I leave you now with that recording. The word is “broads” and the note comes at 2:26.

You’ve all heard it I’m sure, but don’t skip ahead… the build up is the best part and you don’t get the payoff of the truest note ever sung without listening to all the building notes before it.

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Further Reading:  Why This Song Sucks

A post written to condemn this song but follows the author’s stream of consciousness learning about the song, ultimately leading to the conclusive line that the author’s analysis should “in no way be trusted”.  Good for a chuckle.