Music Diary, Vol. -32

For the rationale behind this mad effort, explanations here. The full series of Music Diary posts are here. The full playlist---2 songs short of the usual 21, as I apparently skipped a few items near the end of the week---is above, also here.

Week of May 29-June 4, 2023

LYRICS: Graham Parker, "Get Started, Start a Fire"

SONG: What always grabs me about this Marty Robbins country standard: the way the 4th bar delays the change to the V ("that I'd ever lose"), then rolls down to IV ("your love, dear"), a lopsided structure that conveys imbalance better than any lyric could.
ALBUM: Ravel - Rameau would have been a more alliterative title, but still, I marvel at this odd, beautiful record from pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, in which he tellingly compares and contrasts two French composers roughly two centuries apart.

LYRICS: Lana Del Rey, "Arcadia"

SONG: While my 13-year-old likes guitar power pop, my 10-year-old gravitates toward orchestral music from Zelda and Ghibli. Joe Hisaishi’s waltzing, Nino Rota-esque theme for “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a particular fave.

ALBUM: This extraordinary record puts you in the room with the polymathic genius of Prince like no other document I know.

LYRICS: Lotte Lenya (Kander & Ebb), "So What?"

SONG: From Sting’s underrated score for THE LAST SHIP, this yearning ballad stands out for the perfect shape of its melody. It’s kind of faux folk song/art song Rodgers used to make with Hammerstein on the regular.

ALBUM: This record was an impulse buy at Rockaway Records back in the early aughts, and I immediately cottoned to its blend of folk and pop songcraft, its signature mix of immaculate production and rough-edged vocals, and E's droll lyrics.

LYRICS: Cyndi Lauper, "Money Changes Everything"

SONG: Like many folks my age, my intro to Kurt Weill was Hal Willner’s compilation LOST IN THE STARS, which means that Dagmar Krause’s brisk, unsentimental reading was the first, and to me still the definitive, rendition of this classic torch song.

ALBUM: Because she’s made so many great records of American repertoire, I sometimes forget that this hushed, glittering collection of Delage, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Kim was my intro to the peerless artistry of Dawn Upshaw.

LYRICS: serpentwithfeet, "bless ur heart"

SONG: This beguiling Panda Bear tune sounds a bit like what you might hear puffing out of the chimneys of a Beach Boys Music Factory as you drive by.

ALBUM: A friend (Jeff Niesel) lent me this Stranglers LP in the mid-'80s, some years after its release. The cover image, which at first glance seems to show one band member as headless, is only the first of many grisly/funny/catchy enticements of this aggressively appealing record.

LYRICS: The Modern Lovers, "Pablo Picasso"

SONG: n/a
ALBUM: n/a

LYRICS: Ron Davies, "It Ain't Easy"

SONG: Going to open the service at Greenpoint Reformed Church today with this heart-lifting anthem, partly in memory of Cynthia Weil, mainly for Pride.

ALBUM: A thing I love about Bach: how he plunges you into the midst of things, then lingers there. In this sense all his music, regardless of tempo marking, feels both fast and slow, vast and minute, economical within a grand design—God in the details.