Monday, May 24, 2010

Bryan Ferry - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Bryan Ferry - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.



Hat tip to my friends Luke, Andy Zax, and Mike Newman for conspiring (unwittingly) to bring this to my attention.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Soundgarden - Into the Void (Sealth)

Soundgarden - Into the Void (Sealth).



Wake and bake, kids. It's your old friends, Soundgarden covering Black Sabbath's classic "Into the Void", from 1971's Master of Reality LP.

This SG cover originally appeared on a CD single for "Jesus Christ Pose", so it's nice to get a YouTube clip that reflects that with the cover art.

Soundgarden's take on Void has a twist: while staying musically faithful to the Sabbath original, Soundgarden uses the (alleged) words of Chief Sealth (or more correctly, Chief Si'hal, for whom Seattle was named) for lyrical styling.

This was a stroke of brilliance, as bassist Ben Shepard saw that the words attributed to Chief Sealth fit the meter of this song, though the environmental plea credited to him was, in fact, a total fabrication.

You can learn more about Chief Sealth's actual speech or, lack thereof, here.

Monday, May 17, 2010

The Faces - Richmond (TOTP 1971)

The Faces - Richmond (TOTP 1971).



The Faces doing "Richmond", live on Top of the Pops in 1971. No miming for Ronnie Lane and the boys. If this doesn't put a smile on your face, well, there's not much I can say for you.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine

Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine.



I'm sorry, but this song just keeps popping up in recent days.

When I was 9, I used to watch this video in heavy rotation on MTV. This was just after Bon Jovi released New Jersey, which went on to become a huge multi-platinum hit in short order. Basically, Jon and the boys were at the height of their powers at this time.

Anyway, I had a sudden yen to hear this last week. Went over to YouTube and watched the video, which I hadn't seen in who knows how many years. The following night, I came home and turned on Vh1 Classic. The first thing I saw was the Sam Kinison intro to this same video.

Half an hour ago, Adam Warner of Daily Options Report sent out a tweet from Stocktwits highlighting an ONN.tv clip on VIX premium selling. The intro music that I heard? You guessed it.

Appropriately enough, Adam also hails from that great state of New Jersey. I live for this shit.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Sex Pistols - EMI

Sex Pistols - EMI.



A fitting end to a week of pure swindle in the markets, in the environment, and in a world filled with non-stop political theater.

The Sex Pistols sing their (original) tale of rock n' roll swindle and openly taunt their former label, EMI (which promptly dropped them after the infamous Bill Grundy incident) on this glorious track.

Of course, this particular swindle was a celebrated case of "the people" (the punks) pulling one over on the big corporations who controlled the distribution of recorded music in England at the time. The Pistols also name-drop (and razz) A&M at the end of this song, from their debut album recorded for Richard Branson's upstart label, Virgin.