talking about music

an old starr in the sky

I watched an old episode of Seinfeld tonight, The Watch (1992), and there was a scene where Elaine sang along to a tune that “Crazy” Joe Davola was singing called Side by Side, a pop standard first released in 1927 and has been remade ever since.

After hearing a snippet of the song, I of course had to look it up and listen to its entirety (this is a flaw of mine). My favourite version is by Anita O’Day and Gene Krupa, which exists in my iPod, but not in good quality video form on YouTube. After much searching I found another version that I enjoy by the perennially lovely Ms. Kay Starr (see video above), who the Lady Day herself (aka Billy Holiday) referred to as “the only white woman who could sing the blues”.

If the blues is indeed your cup of tea, then there’s Ms. Lee Morse’s version (see video below) — a legendary jazz and blues singer popular in the 1920s & ’30s. Hearing her voice, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that she is only five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds.

Anita O’Day/Kay Starr/Lee Morse - Side by Side

Oh, we ain’t got a barrel of money
Maybe we’re ragged and funny

But we’ll travel along
Singing a song
Side by side

I don’t know what’s comin’ tomorrow
Maybe it’s trouble and sorrow
But we’ll travel the road
Sharing our load
Side by side

Through all kinds of weather
What if the sky should fall?
Just as long as we’re together
It really doesn’t matter at all

When they’ve all had their quarrels and parted
We’ll be the same as we started
Just traveling along
Singing a song
Side by side

a heap of ethereal

I rediscovered this song today (thank you, Grooveshark) and have been playing it on repeat, both the original (see video above) and remixed versions (see video below).

The multi-talented Ms. Imogen Heap is one of my favourite female artists today. She’s a classically trained musician in several instruments including piano, cello and clarinet, who started writing songs since the age of thirteen. Her lyrics are simple, but the meaning complex. Many of her songs are haunting and beautiful. She principally taught herself sequencing, music engineering, sampling and production. She also taught herself to play the guitar and drums, and subsequently percussion instruments.

I unfortunately missed her performance when she came to Toronto. Fingers crossed she’ll go on tour again soon.

Imogen Heap - Wait It Out

Where do we go from here?
How do we carry on?
I can’t get beyond the questions.
Clambering for the scraps
In the shatter of us collapsed.
It cuts me with every could-have-been.

Pain on pain on play, repeating
With the backup makeshift life in waiting.

Everybody says that time heals everything.
But what of the wretched hollow?
The endless in-between?
Are we just going to wait it out?

The video above is of a lovely tune I’ve been listening to on repeat today by Melody Gardot. I read that while recuperating from a car accident, Ms. Gardot listened to Stan Getz’s album, The Bossa Nova Years, which is an excellent record if you’re into jazz/bossa nova/great music. You can definitely hear its influence in this song. She also learned to play guitar in the hospital and shortly after began to write her own music (and what wonderful music it is).

Since she recovered from the accident, she continues to use music as a therapeutic lifeline. She is truly an inspiration.

Melody Gardot - If The Stars Were Mine

If the stars were mine
I’d give them all to you
I’d pluck them down right from the sky
and leave it only blue

I would never let the sun forget to shine upon your face
so when others would have rain clouds,
you’d have only sunny days

If the stars were mine
I’d tell you what I’d do
I’d put the stars right in a jar,
and give ‘em all to you

I believe

After a really hectic week, it’s nice to have a quiet day at home. Today, for instance, I did not do much else except watching one X-Files episode after another (Dear Netflix, you’ve ruined me) while eating Haagen Dazs’s Pralines-n-Cream ice cream.

Mulder has many great one liners that it’s impossibly difficult to pick a favourite (although, “You know, they say when you talk to God, it’s prayer, but when God talks to you, it’s schizophrenia”, is right up there), but what Dana Scully said below I personally find to be very true:

“It seems to me that the best relationships, the ones that last, are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.”

I came across the oh-so-wonderful Molly Johnson’s rendition of the George Gershwin song But Not For Me today. The video is of her performing live in Montreal in 2008. She made a sad song sound so delightful.

Molly Johnson - But Not For Me

I was a fool to fall, and get that way,
Hi ho! Alas! And also Lack a day!
Although I can’t dismiss,
The memory of his kiss,
I guess he’s not for me.

It all began so well, but what an end,
This is the time a gal needs a friend,
When every happy plot,
Ends in a marriage knot,
And there’s no knot for me.