Modern beat style

Stole this from a blogger called TBogg.

With the understanding that these are lists I’m making today, and tomorrow they might be partly or entirely different:

Lyrics that Move Your Heart

1. It’s Always Raining-Rock and Hyde

And the sun it crept away, and the sky was turning grey, and the storm had barely started, but I knew just what she’d say…it’s always raining, why is it always raining? It washes all my dreams away. Why can’t the sun shine, for just a short time? Now that would really make my day. Well it got dark soon, so I took the last bus home. And on the empty street a girl stood all alone…

1. The Man Who Wrote Danny Boy-Joe Jackson

It happened one night

At three in the morning

The devil appeared in my studio room

And he said I’m your pal

And I’ll make you a deal

Blow away your struggle

And I’ll take your soul for a toy

After rubbing my eyes

I looked all around me

At the half-finished drivel I’d worked on for days

And I told him my dream

Was to live for all time

In some perfect refrain

Like the man who wrote Danny Boy

And I said if you’re real, then I’ll ask you a question

While most of us turn into ashes or dust

Just you and that other guy go on forever

But who writes the history

And who do I trust?

He gave me a wink

And he said it was funny

How mortals would pour all their blood, sweat and tears

Onto tape, onto paper

Or into the air

To be lost and forgotten

Outside of his kind employ

Then I thought I could hear a great sound in the distance

Of whiskey-soaked singing

And laughter and cheers

And they’re saying, that song could bring tears to a glass eye

So pass me the papers, I’ll sign them in blood

And the smell of the brimstone was turned into greasepaint

And the roar of the crowd like the furies of hell

And I hear the applause and I hear the bells ringing

And the sound of a woman’s voice from the next room

Saying come to me now

Come lay down beside me

Whatever you’re doing you’re too gone to see

You can’t hold onto shadows, no more than to years

So be glad for the pleasures

We’re young enough to enjoy

So maybe I’m drunk

Or maybe a liar

Or maybe we’re all living inside a dream

You can say what you like

When I’m gone, then you’ll see

I’ll be down in the dark

Down underground

With Shakespeare and Bach

And the man who wrote Danny Boy

1. Shout-Tears For Fears

And when you’ve taken down your guard

If I could change your mind

I’d really love to break your heart.

1. Homeless Club Kids-My Favorite

When the dance floor’s full all the kids look so beautiful. When the dance floor’s full all the kids look indivisible. The disremembered stars of architectural disasters. The disremembered stars as bright and lost as fireflies in jars. Do you really want to stay amongst these starving stowaways? Do you really want to stay lost? When the dance floor clears, I take a pack of matches as a souvenir. When the dance floor clears, I walk home alone with their voices still in my ears. The ghosts of dead teenagers sing to me while I am dancing. They’re sad and young, and they’ll be sad and young forever. And I cry until I…

1. All of my heart-ABC

Sentimental powers might help you now

But skip the hearts and flowers, skip the ivory towers

You’ll be disappointed and I’ll lose a friend

(Extra)

How do you live without sunshine-Nick Heyward

5 Instrumentals

1. Unto The Resplendent-The Mermen

Rolls up with Vince Littleton’s drums hitting like a salty spray against Jim Thomas’s bobbing guitar. This is soon joined by a shimmering, Duane Eddy-like twang that puts you under the water, and when the pedal steel (guest Joe Goldmark) comes on top of this, it’s like dolphins breaking the waves.

1. Love Theme (from Tron)-Wendy Carlos

Probably instrumental in making sure I never accepted the idea that technology and emotion were foreign to one another. Recurring in several different orchestrations throughout the score, it is never less than sublime, a romantic lullaby for the last generation to remember when there weren’t home computers.

1. Nocturne #2-Joe Jackson

This comes from the same album as the lyric above; Night Music; so I’m saying I like that album a lot.

1. Love And Dancing-League Unlimited Orchestra

Bit of a cheat. This is an album (most of the Human League’s Dare) remixed into nearly all-intrumentals). But I couldn’t pick between Don’t You Want Me, Things That Dreams Are Made Of or Don’t You Want Me, and they are all mixed together into a continuous non-stop program…

1. Imperial-Robin Guthrie

Violet Indiana/Cocteau Twins guitarist Guthrie lets the music do the talking, and casts a thoughtful spell that deeper enchants the heart the more times the record spins.

Top 5 Live Musical Experiences

1. Pet Shop Boys, Performance tour

1. Joe Jackson, Night Music tour

Saw this show twice, first with my friend Turner, then when Jackson came back to town a few months later I saw it again, and that was the better show. Of course, I saw it with Ginger (those of you who know what that means, know what that means). That may have had something to do with it.

1. OMD opening for Depeche Mode on the Music For The Masses tour.

I am so glad I saw this show, because it turned out to be the last time that “OMD proper” toured America.

1. Moxy Fruvous opening for Nick Heyward and making him look sick.

1. This slot reperesents all the memorable shows I can’t list–the David Bowie “farewell tour” where I kissed Ginger, PWEI at the Edge in Palo Alto…

Five Albums You Must Hear From Start to Finish

1. Actually-Pet Shop Boys

A remarkably cohesive album for the number of producers on it.

1. Kite-Kirsty MacColl

I think this has come around to being my very favorite–it’s Kirsty, so it’s bloody hard to pick one, but I decided not to cheat and plump for the Galore compilation.

1. (The aforementioned) Night Music-Joe Jackson

1. This Is The Day…This Is The Hour…This Is This!-Pop Will Eat Itself

1. Linus & Lucy-The Music Of Vince Guaraldi-George Winston

Lovely.

Top Five Musical Heroes

What, have you not been paying attention?

Kirsty MacColl (bless her) and Joe Jackson

Pet Shop Boys

Cole Porter

Stephen Sondheim

Again, this slot represents all the heroes I can’t list–ABC, OMD, PWEI, and even one or two groups that aren’t known by their initials (Thompson Twins, for one)…

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Ben Varkentine