I’ve wanted to use a David Bowie (learn more, web site) video for my Tuesday Tune for a long time now. I had a few videos in mind but I couldn’t find versions that would give me permission to embed them into my blog. Plus, he has some forty years of video floating around, so which one to choose? I think I will feature him again in the future, and maybe then I will use a more current video. But today I’m using a BBC appearance from way back in 1972 (though it was not actually broadcast until 1982). But in those early days of 1972 he was just getting ready to take off for the big time with his Ziggy Stardust album and tour.

However, this song originally comes from his Hunky Dory album, a year or two earlier. It’s a pretty good album. Of course, you should buy almost all his albums, he is so talented. Today’s tune is a live vesion of “Oh, You Pretty Things“. Interesting fact: according to Wikipedia, the song was first released by Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, on a single on which Bowie played piano. More about that strange twist and it’s “success” is located here. Anyway, in this video, the song is very direct and you can easily see that Bowie has talent and charisma and is headed for much bigger things. Enjoy…

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One of these days I’ll get around to compiling a list of Ten Artists Who Should Be More Famous. It may be hard to keep it to ten. Nowdays, there are so many great artists who barely get heard, if they get known at all. And yet so many pop tarts, crap rappers, boy bands, and sludge rockers seem to be around for way too long. But just imagine a different world, a world where new wavy edgy folk-rockers write great, intelligent songs with clever lyrics and biting and slightly sarcastic vocals. Yeah, Elvis Costello lives there some of time and Joe Jackson rented there for a while.

But in that different world, a once-almost-famous British guy named Graham Parker (learn more, web site) has lived there for over thirty years now, churning out loads of albums over the years. Granted, not every song is perfect but there are so many great ones. His album Squeezing Out Sparks is a classic that every modern rock fan should own, along with five or eight of his other albums too. Ask me for suggestions if you want. And he keeps plugging away. Another new album is underway and due in 2010. Today’s Terrific Tune is a killer track from that Squeezing Out Sparks album but performed live a decade or more later on the David Letterman show. It’s the closer for side one (yeah, it was a record!), called “Passion Is No Ordinary Word”. Reminds me a little of when we saw him not long ago at The Palms. But that’s another post, lol. For now, watch this video. This is what the singer-songwriter genre should be!

Graham Parker “Passion Is No Ordinary Word” on Letterman.

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Leave me a comment below. Squeeze out some sparks!

Today’s Terrific Tune for Tuesday is from moody English rockers The Cure (learn more). They have been putting out unique and intersting music since the late seventies and are still doing it. I’m a big fan and have a small collection of their music and other items. I’ve always loved their album “Disintegration“. It spawned a bunch of singles and “Lullabye” was one of them. It’s a slow, almost sing-songy tune about Spiderman “having me for dinner tonight”. It’s gloomy, gothy fun and to take it just a little further, I’m featuring the “Lullabye (Acoustic)” video. The original video has lead singer Robert Smith about to be devoured by a spider, but this version is more of a performance video. Nicely strange, so check it out:

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Today’s Terrific Tune for Tuesday (view all) is an example of indie sensitive charming offbeat singer songwriter music. What? You don’t know that genre? Oh, it is such hella good stuff! There are so many good examples but today’s is Ingrid Michaelson and I am featuring the video for her song “Breakable” from her first CD “Girls And Boys”. She just released her third CD and I suggest you buy them all. There’s even an easy link below the video 😉

I just love her voice, her catchy songs, and her lyrics. I wanted to use the video for her sort-of hit, “The Way I Am”, but YouTube didn’t allow embedding it into my site. Check it out here on YouTube. What a great song. And I almost used her latest video for Maybe (again, YouTube). What a catchy pop song (even if she does have better songs). BTW, I would recommend her live show too. We saw in 2008 at the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival and we both really enjoyed her show. There, she threw in a great cover version of Death Cab For Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, one of my favorite songs. The whole show was warm, cute, charming, fun, upbeat, and really enjoyable. Go see her.

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Leave me a comment below. Have a (non-breakable) heart!

Regular readers already know about my love for the best cover songs ever. For me, it’s about taking a really well-known song and making a new, fresh, and interesting version of it. And that’s what is happening with today’s tune. A little background: The Rolling Stones, a pretty decent band in their own right, had a huge hit with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” back in 1965 or thereabouts. Everyone knows that song, probably note for note! But then, in the late 70s, a new group came along with a quirky and far-out concept about how the human race is undergoing “de-evolution” (the opposite of evolution), that we’re getting dumber and dumber. They turned music upside down, especially at first, with their classic album “Are We Not Men? We Are Devo“, produced by Brian Eno.

And Devo they were (learn more, interesting facts about Devo). No other band was like them at the time and few still venture into that territory. They started to resemble a parody of themselves after a while, what with the radiation suits, the flower-pot hats, etc. But I always liked them and I admire the fact that at least they did something clever, unique, catchy, and different. So, to make a short story long, today’s Terrific Tune is their cover version of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. For my money, it outshines the original and is one of the high points of the weirdness called “Devo”. It’s also a great example of a cover song that truly stands on it’s own.

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Today’s Terrific Tune features a well-known band. A really well-known band. It’s the Irish band U2. Heard of ’em? I thought so. If not, (what planet are you from?), learn more here. Anyway, I’m not using one of the big hits. Maybe this one was a small hit? I’ve found over the years that many of my favorite U2 songs are not the big hits. In fact, both of their “best of” CDs are available with a second disc of lesser-known versions, b-sides, remixes, covers, etc. And those discs might even be better than the actual “hits” discs. There’s a lot more to this band than what you hear on the radio.

And the same four people have been in the band for over thirty years. How many bands can say that? But you can read about the fame, the awards, the glory some other time. Right now, this is the video for one of my favorite U2 songs, “Electrical Storm”. The video is done by Anton Corbijn, known also for Depeche Mode videos amongst other things. He loves black-and-white and stark images. So turn up the volume, set your video size to full-screen, and check it out. Then let me know what YOU think.

If the sky can crack
There must be some way back
To love and only love

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Last night I went to a concert and saw “anti-folk”, “folk-punk”, “folk-funk” (whatever!) singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco and her band. The show was good, which will come as no surprise if you have ever seen her live. We’ve seen her live four or five times and it has always been good. She obviously loves performing and no one writes the type of songs that she does, at least not as well. So, today I feature a video of her and her recent band in the studio. It is from a couple years ago, but they are remaking her old song “Both Hands” (early nineties?).

The remade version is for her best-of, 2-CD set “Canon”, and if you don’t own anything by her that set is a pretty good place to start. Then go from there are get Dilate, Little Plastic Castles, the live Living In Clip. and the 20-odd other albums she has put out, not counting all her live bootlegs that she sells on her site and at her shows. In fact, I just picked up a copy of the 2003 Sacramento show that we saw six years ago! Very smart of her to sell CDs of her shows. Anyway, this video shows her having a good time rerecording this song. Is it her best song or best performance? Maybe not. But it’s still cool. Check it out.

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Today’s Terrific Tune is a rock ballad by a group that doesn’t do many ballads. It’s Green Day and the video for their current big hit “21 Guns”. The song is from their latest CD “21st Century Breakdown”. This album is great! They’ve grown so much with the last couple albums. There’s more variety and depth and so far I’d say this is easily one of the ten best albums of the year. As for this song, you may have heard it too many times on the radio, or maybe not, but give it another listen and check out the video. It ties in with the concept storyline of the album. And is singer Billie Joe Armstrong about the coolest looking guy? He looks awesome to me…

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George Harrison is dead and gone, may he rest in peace. When he was a Beatle, he was always in the considerable shadow of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And he sometimes wanted more of his own songs on their albums. But once they broke up, he put out plenty of albums with plenty of songs. Most of the albums were a bit uneven but all had some good songs on them. Then, in the 90s, on his “comeback” album Cloud Nine, he took a musical look back at his time in the “Fab Four”. This song, “When We Was Fab”, is the result. The video has his characteristic clever humor and the song is pretty darned catchy too. He was fab.

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Today’s Terrific Tune is simple, catchy, light, likable, and upbeat. But I’m going to feature it anyway! Ha! It’s Eric Hutchinson (learn more, web site) doing his song “OK, It’s Allright With Me”, in the official video. The song is short and charming. And the video has a really nice look to it. We saw Eric earlier this month at the Seattle Bumbershoot Festival. He was charismatic and the music was irresistible pop. Take a look below, it’s a cool video and a song that will have you humming it later.

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