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- Readers recommend: songs about hats
Last week we wanted your villainous tunes, this week it's songs about headwear. After all, hat's entertainment
Things I have learned about villains: 1/ They like to murder, sometimes to the exclusion of all other crimes 2/ They often do their murdering under the cover of doing something nice. One minute they're taking a friend out for a picnic, the next ... 3/ They're great at coming up with nicknames for themselves 4/ They often get away scot free.
All in all, were a child to spend much time listening to the music nominated for last week's topic they might well come to the conclusion that becoming a villain would be a worthwhile career. Which may not be precisely the message anyone wanted to send out, but given the state of the job market, might prove helpful in the long run.
Your A-list (with a column that attempts to explain it): Nick Cave – The Curse of Millhaven; The Decemberists – The Rake's Song; Jim Croce – Bad Bad Leroy Brown; The Kinks – Here Comes Flash; The Coasters – Along Came Jones; Cisco Houston – Diamond Joe; Bob Dylan – The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll; Talib Kweli and Cornel West – Bushonomics; Carole King – He's a Bad Boy; Kid Creole and the Coconuts – Stool Pigeon.
Without even pausing for breath (must ... pause ... for ... breath ... oxygen ... vital ...) on to the B-list:
Peter Gabriel – The Intruder
Took me right back to "unsettling" week this did, what with its atonal elements and distinct whiff of sadistic pleasure that comes from the lyrics. There are also some "good" homemade videos for the song on YouTube.
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
Has the air of a fairy tale about it, what with the portentous guitar line and Aqualung's unpleasant traits: "Snot running down his nose ... greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes." Only thing is, I'm not sure this homeless man is a villain, certainly not in the eyes of the narrator.
Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger
We all know this and I would have been quite happy to have put it in the A-list, especially with such a shortage (again!) of songs written or performed by women. In the end I chose not to, lest anyone did their nut at the inclusion of an "obvious" choice.
Ghostface Killah – Miguel Sanchez
Kind of a superhero story in which Ghostface and his less-talented posse imagine taking down a South American drug lord. Rather than being the drug lord themselves. Which made a refreshing change.
Everley Brothers – Down in the Willow Garden
Another song for the folder marked "disturbingly sweet tales of murder" as a young lover is drugged then stabbed then chucked in a river all to some lovely harmonised vocals. I note this song appeared on the album Songs our Daddy Taught Us. Sounds like a nice man.
Elton John – Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher
Like Elton's Grimsby, which I picked for Songs About Towns in one of my first weeks here, I was totally unaware of this song's existence. It also came as a pleasant surprise to find Elton have strong political opinions. It was less pleasant actually listening to the song itself, but hey.
Odetta – Masters of War
I'm a big fan of this Dylan song (though I find the sentiments a little simplistic – get me). Odetta's version takes all the fury out of it, and replaces it with disquieting stillness. It definitely has a Nina Simone-ish quality to it, but that is in no way a bad thing.
Quincy Jones – Killer Joe
Closest we get to an instrumental this week as we are invited to imagine a suave killer making his way through a smiling metropolis, entirely unaware of our villain's misdeeds. At least that's how I heard it.
Udo Lindenberg – Germans
Funny track this. I mean the Germans aren't really villains unless you're some kind of recidivist football fan banned from every league ground in Europe, and what's more this song is sung by a German. But yet, the entire thing is a list of annoying Gerrman habits. What are we to make of that?
Captain Beefheart – The Floppy Boot Stomp
This is how I'd imagine a villain to really sound – full of noise and fury and with some predilection towards witchcraft. Meanders a bit, but this still brings the voodoo down.
You can get as much of this week's selections as Spotify make available on this here playlist.
So hat's your lot for last week's topic and no doubt some will be beret glad to see the back of it. Others will be bowlered-over at the prospect of fez-ing up to a new challenge. But what is this week's topic? Well, let me enlighten-gallon-hat you. It's hats. Songs about hats. It's one of those weeks where the hat doesn't have to be front and centre, but should at least make a compelling cameo. I will be particularly interested in hats that aren't worn by cowboys (though I am not excluding them).
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill, the Collabo.
DO post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO NOT post more than one-third of the lyrics of any song.
DO NOT dump lists of nominations – if you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
DO be nice to each other!
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Переслать - Remembering Rammellzee, a hip-hop pioneer
The graffiti artist and musician, who has died aged 49, influenced the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill with his 1983 record Beat Bop
In 1983, New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat produced and provided artwork for what was to become the only record ever released on independent label Tartown. That record, Beat Bop, a collaboration between rappers Rammellzee and K-Rob was limited to 500 copies and went on to become a holy grail for collectors. More importantly, it influenced numerous rappers, most notably Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill. It's a record that will be played again this weekend after the news that Rammellzee has passed away at the age of 49.
Rammellzee – his real name long obscured after he changed it legally – was much more than just an old-school rapper. Before he ever committed his vocals to vinyl he was an established graffiti artist, peppering the A train in Queensbridge, New York in the late 70s with his trademark spiky letters. He was featured in the two landmarks of hip-hop cinema, Henry Chalfant's graffiti doc, Style Wars and Charlie Ahearn's Wild Style, toting a shotgun as he rapped on stage in the latter.
A fascinating eccentric with an unusual dress sense, he was prone to Lee "Scratch" Perry-style flights of conversational fancy. Rammellzee also developed a theory he called Gothic Futurism, in which graffiti writers, inspired by medieval monks, would work to liberate the mystical powers of letters from the constraints of modern alphabetical standardisation. His graffiti work would go on to be displayed in galleries worldwide, while his treatise, Iconic Panzerisms, set out an anarchistic approach to language and letters.
Rammellzee took his beliefs to extremes and lived his life that way too. He was seldom seen without one of the ski-masks or costumes that festooned his home, speaking to both friends and enemies while in character. His occasional musical forays – Gettovetts, Death Comet Crew – were increasingly experimental and fractured. His influence, however, was still felt far and wide. It's widely believed that Beastie Boys based their nasal whines on the rap style he used on Beat Bop, while Cypress Hill would lift samples, song choruses and B-Real's distinctive rap voice from segments of the same track. Twenty-seven years after its release, and days after the death of its star, Beat Bop is a record that still sounds like nothing else on Earth, made by a man like no one else on Earth.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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