Lizzie

Rest in peace my old and true friend.

Various Artists: Red Hot + Blue/The Civil War

1990

1. I've Got You Under My Skin - Neneh Cherry
2. In The Still Of The Night - Neville Brothers
3. You Do Something To Me - Sinead O Connor
4. Begin The Beguine - Salif Keita
5. Love For Sale - Fine Young Cannibals
6. Well, Did you Evah! - Debbie Harry/Iggy Pop
7. Miss Otis Regrets/Just One Of Those Things - Kirsty Maccoll/The Pogues
8. Don't Fence Me In - David Byrne
9. It's All Right With Me - Tom Waits
10. Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - Annie Lennox
11. Night And Day - U2
12. I Love Paris - Les Negresses Vertes
13. So In Love - K.D. Lang
14. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - The Thompson Twins
15. Too Darn Hot - Erasure
16. I Get A Kick Out Of You - The Jungle Brothers
17. Down In The Depths - Lisa Stansfield
18. From This Momment On - Jimmy Somerville
19. After You - Jody Watley
20. Do I Love You? - Aztec Camera

1990

1. Drums Of War - The Old Bethpage Brass Band
2. Oliver Wendell Holmes (Quote) - Paul Roebling
3. Ashokan Farewell - Jay Ungar
4. The Battle Cry Of Freedom - Jacqueline Schwab
5. We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder - Bernice Johnson Reagon
6. Dixie/Bonnie Blue Flag - The New American Brass Band
7. Cheer Boys Cheer - The New American Brass Band
8. Angel Band - Russ Barenberg, Molly Mason
9. Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier - Jacqueline Schwab, Jesse Carr
10. Lorena - Matt Glaser, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason
11. Parade - The New American Brass Band
12. Hail Columbia - The New American Brass Band
13. Dixie - Bobby Horton
14. Kingdom Coming - Matt Glaser, Jay Ungar, Art Baron
15. Battle Hymn Of The Republic - Matt Glaser, Jacqueline Schwab
16. All Quiet On The Potomac - Jacqueline Schwab
17. Flag Of Columbia - Jacqueline Schwab
18. Weeping Sad And Lonely - Peggy James, Jacqueline Schwab, Jesse Carr
19. Yankee Doodle - The Old Bethpage Brass Band
20. Palmyra Schottische - The New American Brass Band
21. When Johnny Comes Marching Home - The Old Bethpage Brass Band
22. Shenandoah - John Levy, John Colby
23. When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Matt Glaser, Yonatin Malin, Jacqueline Schwab, Molly Mason, Peter Amidon, Jay Ungar
24. Marching Through Georgia - Matt Glaser, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, Peter Amidon
25. Marching Through Georgia (Lament) - Jacqueline Schwab
26. Battle Cry Of Freedom - Jacqueline Schwab
27. Battle Hymn Of The Republic - The Abyssinian Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir
28. Ashokan Farewell/Sullivan Ballou Letter - Paul Roebling, David McCullough

Two albums, one post, one entry on my Top 20 list. My blog, my rules!

These two albums may seem pretty dissimilar, but they are closely related in significant ways with regards to the impact they had on me. I remember buying them within months of each other -- maybe 3 months at the most -- as a senior in high school.

With Red Hot + Blue, I just heard about a new album with Annie Lennox, U2, kd lang, Debbie Harry, Sinead O'Connor and others. You'd be all over it, right? I certainly was. That's all I knew at the time; turns out, it was a benefit album for AIDS research, as well as a tribute to Cole Porter, and I loved it. There were so many great songs sung by so many great people. Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye became one of my favorite Annie Lennox songs. Well, Did Ya Evah! and Don't Fence Me In were delightfully fun. Miss Otis Regrets by Kirsty Maccoll was a great discovery, both song and artist.

The Civil War came into our house via the groundbreaking Ken Burns documentary of course. The whole family watched it on PBS, my mother being a major Civil War buff and me being a minor one. All of the music in the series was great, but one particular melody that kept being played over and over was especially compelling. That turned out to be Ashokan Farewell, which remains today one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.

I closely identify both albums with my parents. After failing a couple of times to win over friends to my musical passions, I moved on to my parents with Red Hot + Blue. I remember sitting on the floor in the den one evening, having forced both of them to come sit down & relax, and playing song after song. It was fully active on my part, giving whatever spiel I wanted about each song as I furiously fast-forwarded and rewound the tape to get to the proper song. It actually worked this time, and my parents responded positively to many of the songs I played. To this day, my dad still asks me sometimes to play "that good Annie Lennox song."

The Civil War was actually a "family album." I initiated the purchase, but decided that we must have it on CD to get the full impact of the beautiful music. I didn't have a CD player yet, so my parents bought a copy for their stereo system. We all listened to it incessantly for months (years, really). My dad particularly loved to listen to music on Saturday morning, so many mornings I would be upstairs laying in bed and hear the the first soft strains of the violin playing Ashokan Farewell, which is a really wonderful memory.

Red Hot + Blue also gave me the opportunity to do something I love to do -- collect. That album was simply the first in the Red Hot series that would eventually include around a dozen albums benefiting AIDS research. I bought them all over the next decade or so, ending up with about 7 or 8 before the themes went so far out of my outside my tastes that I had to quit. There are some great albums in the Red Hot series though, including Red Hot + Rio, Red Hot + Rhapsody, and Red Hot + Country.

In its own way, The Civil War also led to a collection of sorts. It really opened the doors for not just movie soundtracks, but movie scores. In the past, I thought a song without lyrics wasn't really a song; it was just elevator music. Ashokan Farewell changed all that. I started trying to chase down different scores & instrumental pieces, which culminated in my purchasing of one of those incredibly cheesy made-for-TV double CD sets called Instrumental Magic. You know, one of those things put out by K-Tel or something.

Most important, though, both Red Hot + Blue and The Civil War helped expand my musical boundaries. Up until that point, my musical experience was pretty limited to whatever came on MTV, VH-1, or CMT, or my parents' favorites (country and 60s pop such as The Beach Boys and The Mamas & the Papas). But after experiencing these two albums, I began to realize there was a lot of good stuff out there. I listened to a lot of Civil War-era music and then moved to other 19th century music. I particularly loved music around the time of the California Gold Rush (The Days of '49, Hangtown Girls), which led to other traditional folk music and Appalachian music (Oh Shenandoah is an absolute favorite). Then WWII-era and Big Band music. Through Cole Porter, I discovered the music of George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, sung by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Nina Simone.

And the exploration into yesteryear's music has never stopped. There is so much incredible stuff out there. Just this past year, I purchased two compilations of sea-faring music called Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys. If you haven't taken time to check out music from the past hundred, two hundred, three hundred years, you're really missing out.

Complaining About No Shoes Even While Others Have No Feet

Listen peeps, you gotta have good shoes when you walk. I am learning the hard way.

I've been walking in my Converse high-tops, which are not horrible, but not really for long-distance walking. My legs have been slightly sore.

Today, though, at work, I walked twice around the building with a bud in my flip-flops, and now my legs are killing me. I feel like I have shin splints or something. And we were hardly burning up the trail -- it was just a casual, chatty walk.

Whatever ... guess I need to put some running shoes on my To Buy list!

Concrete Blonde: Bloodletting

1990
1. Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)
2. The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden
3. Caroline
4. Darkening Of The Light
5. I Don't Need A Hero
6. Days And Days
7. The Beast
8. Lullabye
9. Joey

10. Tomorrow, Wendy

What can I say about this entry on my Top Albums list? That's the problem I've been facing for the past week or so. What can I say?

You see, this is probably THE album on my list, but there isn't really much of a story to go along with it. No identification with specific times in my life or with specific friends. No big walks down memory lane.

It is simply the force of my feelings for these songs that puts it here.

Certainly there are details I remember. I was 17, driving to school one fall morning (thank heavens I had upgraded from a 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint with only AM radio to a 1986 Mercury Cougar or this revelation might have never happened), and listening to the radio. Squeezed in among the MC Hammer and Wilson Phillips hits, the DJ played this haunting song by a woman with a strong, soulful voice.

I had never heard the song or anything like it; I had never heard the voice. This was back in the day when radio stations would play 3, 4, 5 songs in row and then at the end of the set give you all the song names and artists, so I sat in my car in the high school parking lot waiting to hear who this was.

Joey by Concrete Blonde. I jotted it down on the back of my notebook (which I still have; yes, I am certifiable). That's all I needed to know. I went to the mall that day as soon as school was out & picked up Bloodletting. I had moved by that time toward a darker sound, so I was excited just by the album cover (drops of blood on a white rose) and the song titles (The Sky is a Poisonous Garden, Darkening of the Light). And then I listened to it.

I won't even bore you with the details other than to say I was completely carried away. I don't think I watched TV that night or talked on the phone or anything. I just listened to that tape over & over. After school the next day, I went back to the mall and said I needed every Concrete Blonde album they had (I had seen in the liner notes that the group had other albums). There were two, so I got them both. And I was not let down.

The songs were dark, yes, but also rich and powerful and emotional. They were a bit harder-edged than most stuff I had liked and would like, but they were still very melodic. And that voice -- oh my ...

I have followed that voice everywhere. When Concrete Blonde broke up and Johnette (the person behind that voice) formed a duo, Vowel Movement, I was there. When that broke up and she formed Pretty & Twisted, I was there. When she took over as lead singer for the David Byrne-less Talking Heads (then just known as The Heads), I was there. When she recorded but never released a solo album called Sound of Woman, I was there (bootleg off eBay).

I still consider Concrete Blonde my favorite band of all time. Sometimes people just earn undying loyalty. Johnette got me when I was 17, and she'll have me forever.

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

I have taken that step -- literally.

More than a week ago, I began walking every morning before work. I wanted to at least get a week under my belt before I told anyone because there was every chance I wouldn't even make it more than a couple of days. There is still that chance, of course, but I thought it was time to share.

Why walking? Well, as you know, I have a stationary bike that I have on occasion used. Even when I use it regularly, I'm not so sure it helps very much, but mainly, I'm just not into it anymore. In fact, I hate that dang thing.

Walking is supposedly among the best types of exercise. It also allows me to get out & about a bit (which I need), and I can take my dog with me.

I am starting out very SLOWLY though. You might not realize, but walking is actually very difficult when you carry around as much weight as I do. Literally within 10 or 15 minutes, my back, neck, and shoulders start really aching.

But I have a plan. There is a nice park up the street from my house. One day I will actually make it to that park, and then after that I will actually make it around the park and back home. And then I will make it around the park multiple times. And then I will jog to the park. And then I will jog around the park multiple times. AND THEN, I will jog to work. Yes, I've just gone insane.

Right now, I don't even make it to the park. But that's ok ...

The Cure: Disintegration

1989

1. Plain Song
2. Pictures Of You
3. Close Down
4. Love Song
5. Last Dance
6. Lullaby
7. Fascination Street
8. Prayers For Rain
9. The Same Deep Water As You
10. Disintegration
11. Homesick
12. Untitled

Teen angst -- that age-old rite of passage. I don't care who you are or how charmed your life (mine was pretty charmed in a lot of respects), teenagers just have angst. It is a weird space to be in sometimes. You've got more freedom, but more responsibility. You are either hanging on to childhood or rushing to be an adult, but you are treated like this vague thing in between.

Some kids express angst externally while others keep it inside. No surprise, I was more of the internal-type. And music, like it did and does for millions of others, tapped right into my feelings. And the album I most identify with that swirling mass of emotions is Disintegration by The Cure.

I bought the tape after school one day before a soccer game, so I didn't really have a chance to listen to it until after the game was over. As managers of the soccer team, Will and I were usually the last to leave. I remember unwrapping it and popping it into my tape deck as I watched Will's car turn out of the parking lot. It was about 9:30 at night, the parking lot was deserted and quiet; it was cool & my windows were down. I had every intention of listening to the tape as I drove home, but as soon as the first song started playing I just leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes. I hardly moved a muscle for the next hour as I listened to song after song after song.

I was 16 when it came out. It was so beautifully & exquisitely & grandly gloomy. And not just lyrically, but instrumentally. A lot of the songs almost sounded like they were in slow motion. Listening to it, I sometimes felt like I was floating out in the ocean, the dark ocean, at night, totally alone and far from shore. And honestly, sometimes I felt like that in real life too.

let's move to the beat

like we know that it's over

if you slip going under

slip over my shoulder

so just pull on your face

just pull on your feet

and let's hit opening time

down on fascination street

Michelle Shocked: Short Sharp Shocked

1988

1. When I Grow Up
2. Hello Hopeville
3. Memories Of East Texas
4. (Making The Run To) Gladewater
5. Graffiti Limbo
6. If Love Was A Train
7. Anchorage
8. The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore
9. V.F.D.
10. Black Widow
11. Fogtown

For those who didn't know me growing up, it might come as a surprise to hear I was really into soccer. And I was really good at it. I played soccer until I was 14, quitting just before I entered high school so I could "focus on studies" (like all good nerds). However, when my friend Will (the same one from Colour By Numbers -- when I make friends, I keep them) asked if I wanted to join him as manager of the high school soccer team, I jumped at the chance.

I really wanted to be involved, but I'll be the first to admit I didn't quite fit in with all the cool soccer guys. For the first couple of months, I was nervous and it was painfully awkward (at least in my mind). But one fall night, the soccer team was traveling to an out-of-town game. We stopped for supper at the food court of a mall & we all went down to the record store after the meal. I bought Short Sharp Shocked by Michelle Shocked. I don't even remember now where I heard about her or why I wanted the tape, but that's what I bought.

As we were heading back home late that night, the guy in the seat behind me tapped my shoulder and asked if he could listen through my headphones for a minute or two to check out what I had bought. I played him my two favorite songs on the album -- Anchorage and When I Grow Up. It was totally not his kind of music or anyone else's for that matter, but he really got a kick out of the fact that I was just sitting there quietly listening to this weird music no one else had even heard of. Of course he insisted we pass the headset around to everyone so they could hear. As everyone on the bus listened to Short Sharp Shocked and commented, I felt like a part of the team for the first time.

That boy who tapped me on the shoulder, Matt, would commit suicide later that year. I was standing in his parent's kitchen after the funeral trying unsuccessfully to contain my emotions (I am not really good at that) when his dad came up to me. He said that Matt always spoke highly of me and was really appreciative of everything I did for the soccer team. And as he said that, I knew that was something Matt really had said & not just something his dad was saying to be kind.

So, although the content of Short Sharp Shocked doesn't remotely address issues like this, that's what I think about every time I listen to the album.

10,000 Maniacs: In My Tribe

1987

1. What's The Matter Here
2. Hey Jack Kerouac
3. Like The Weather
4. Cherry Tree
5. The Painted Desert
6. Don't Talk

7. Peace Train
8. Gun Shy
9. My Sister Rose
10. A Campfire Song
11. City Of Angels
12. Verdi Cries

It was the summer of my 14th year when I saw the video for Like the Weather by 10,000 Maniacs. My friend Lonnie (the same one who wasn't as impressed as he should have been with Tango in the Night) was on vacation in Florida, so I wrote down the name of the song and the artist so that I could tell him about it when he got back to town. I loved it, and I knew that he would too.

He did. And we listened to that tape all summer long. One of the things I loved most about In My Tribe was that Like the Weather, which was great, actually turned out to be one of my least favorite songs on the album because everything else was so so good.

Not long after the album came out, I remember reading in Rolling Stone that it was the top college music album in the country. I felt so grown up somehow. Just the idea of college music stirred all these romanticized images in my mind of all-night political discussions in the dorm, saving the world -- you know, all those college cliches that are mostly untrue. But still, I loved the thought. And the songs on In My Tribe were actually about something. Something important I thought. Child abuse (What's the Matter Here?), illiteracy (Cherry Tree), war (Gun Shy) ...

And as if to underline how grown up I was becoming, my parents agreed to let me go see 10,000 Maniacs in my FIRST EVER out-of-town concert. It was at Mud Island Amphitheater in Memphis. Natalie Merchant sat down at the piano for the final song of the night, the gorgeous Verdi Cries, and just as she began to sing (no lie) a bug flew in her mouth. She stopped playing & started to explain to the audience what happened, but some ass yelled at her to shut up so she got up and left the stage. End of show.

RESET

Well, guess what today is? It is the day I reset that old, unappreciated, untrue total weight loss number from the header of my blog and knock it back to zero. I've got to restart the countdown.

August 1 is as good a day as any to do that. I went to the doctor today and everything is up. My weight is up, my blood pressure it up, my frustration level is up. So I need to do something about it. Before my time is up! (Shit, that was harsh)!

So, goodbye to the 21.2 lbs that I lost. I'm starting fresh. I don't know how often or even where I will weigh myself, but I'll figure something out. And the number of total lbs lost will start rising again.

I was reading a friend's blog today that quoted someone as saying it is a blessing to be able to prove to yourself how strong you are. Is it that simple? Am I strong enough to do this or not? If so, prove it.