Artist: Lowell George
Song: Willin’
Album: Little Feat (1971)
About Lowell George
About Little Feat
About Willin Bike
About Cinelli
Live
2011-01-09
2011-01-08
Little Feat - Hoy Hoy!
Artist: Little Feat
Album: Hoy Hoy! (1981)
Hoy Hoy! is the name of a Little Feat collection released in 1981 two years after the band's break-up following the death of founder Lowell George.
More about Hoy Hoy! And Hoy Hoy Rats
About Cinelli
2011-01-06
Zydeco Bike
2011-01-04
Ben Folds Five - The Luckiest
Artist: Ben Fold Five
Song: The Luckiest
Album: Rockin the Suburbs (2001)
Ben Folds is the US born singer-songwriter and pianist, formerly the leader of the US indie-rock trio Ben Folds Five. He is known for his smart and humourous lyrics.
On the evidence of Rockin' the Suburbs, Ben Folds's decision to jettison the two-piece Five that had backed him on four largely excellent albums has not resulted in any significant shift in trajectory. The Ben Folds Five were only getting better, gradually discovering the confidence not to hide their musical uniqueness (there have been too few piano-led power trios) and lyrical intelligence behind undergrad Barenaked Ladies-style gags. Songs like "Mess" and "Brick" signaled an extraordinary new songwriting talent worthy of comparison to Folds's obvious idols, Elvis Costello and Paul Simon. Only this album's title track harkens back to Folds's fondness for comedy, and it is by far the weakest track here. The rest is mournful, reflective, and, at best, quite magnificent. Folds's hymns to his family, "Still Fighting It" and "The Luckiest" are shot through with an honesty that's rare in alternative rock. The acerbic essence of character sketches such as "Carrying Cathy," "Losing Lisa," and "Zak & Sara" are leavened with a generous compassion. Folds's second solo effort is his best album yet. The remainder of his career must be anticipated with equal parts expectation and impatience. --Andrew Mueller
(…)The beautiful balladry of "The Luckiest" which, like Big Star's "Blue Moon", borrows the cascading lines and chord progressions of Pachabel's Cannon to express the comfort and fortune we feel to be in the company of loved ones- and the urgency we should feel in letting them know how much they're appreciated before these short lifetimes are over. (…)
I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here
And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest
What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?
And in a white sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest
I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you
Next door there's an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away
I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest
A cappella version
2011-01-02
Ian and Jennifer Partridge - Cycling Song
Artist: Ian and Jennifer Partridge
Song: Cycling Song
Album: Play The Game: Victorian and Edwardian Sporting Songs (2001)
Ian and Jennifer Partridge extra retro, “Cycling Song”, from Play the Game: Victorian and Edwardian Sporting Songs, Just Accord Music, 2001.
The serious approach in these performances of utter trivia--titles such as "I won her heart at billiards" and "Won't you come over and play croquet"--lend them an absurdity that their creators wouldn't have envisaged. When Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane penned his carol to "the joys of the gay cricket ground, with some jolly good fellows to share it," he presumably had no sense of how changing times would amplify his meaning. Likewise with the composer of the "Eton Boating Song", who wrote "Swing, swing together with your backs between your knees". All of which makes this disc a complete joy, done as it is with po-faced eloquence, restraint and delicacy. Tenor Ian Partridge and his various collaborators (The Song and Supper Club turns out to be a bunch of former choral scholars who do after-dinner entertainments) know that for the formula to work it needs a certain sympathy and earnestness, but they're not blind to the high-camp that gives the songs a life--and an appeal--beyond their period inconsequentiality. It's an hour of good, clean (OK, clean-ish) fun. --Michael White
A fun CD which will appeal to the sports lover, music lover and history lover in equal measure. The idea is simple. "Play The Game" contains 17 British and American songs,
each one about a different sport. The songs were written between 1862 and 1913.
Listeners are likely to be drawn to the songs which illustrate their favourite sports. Many golfers will recognise the plight of the player in "Caddie", written in 1900, who pleads with his caddie, ever more desperately, to 'get me right out of this mess'. Enthusiasts of British heritage will enjoy "The Eton Boating Song", the song of Eton College, where Princes William and Harry were educated. The CD contains a real historical curiosity: "A Hunting Morning" is a setting of a rare poem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
The liner notes contain an article on the history of sport, a background note on each song plus short biographies of the composers and lyricists. The CD would make an unusual Christmas or birthday gift for a sports loving friend.
Strongly recommended!
2011-01-01
Darren Hanlon - The Kickstand Song
Artist: Darren Hanlon
Song: The Kickstand Song
Album: Hello Stranger (2002)
Darren Hanlon's debut full-length consists of 10 pop songs that bring to mind the whimsical, light-hearted music of the 60s with a modern bent. This Australian singer/songwriter evokes images of Billy Bragg, Jonathan Richman, and Evan Dando.
On the consummately enjoyable Hello Stranger, his first full-length release following on the heels of his Australian breakthrough EP, Early Days, Darren Hanlon delivers the logical follow-up, further refining his impressively accomplished pop hooks and lyrical wit. This is a perfectly vibrant mix, with the arrangements crackling with a live intensity and musical looseness, and Hanlon proves himself a songwriter and tunesmith clearly in the line of greats like Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg in his ability to pair memorable melodies with clever songwriting. Even with rather odd lyrical subjects, such as the man who invented the kickstand in the strangely earnest "The Kickstand Song," his songs rarely suffer from an overreaching sense of wistfulness.
From start to finish, Hello Stranger rings out with a true buoyancy and ultimately rates as one of the rare jewels in a rather ho-hum season of singer/songwriter releases. Matt Fink - www.allmusic.com
Up until now my ideas have been latent
The cycling world will never be the same
But come first light I'll be taking out a patent
And from that day
If a bike be found lying on the ground again
I'm not to blame
What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
Bolted down by the back wheel, activated by the heel
What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
What chicken laid the egg from whence inside an idea hatches?
From prototype to production lines to the first one hundred batches
I will do for parking bikes what anchors did for sailing
What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
There's handle bars for steering and there's tyre tread for traction
A tiny bell for friends you pass and greet
But when they add my ingenious contraption
Mouths will fall
And eyebrows will rise and staring eyes will meet
The bike complete
What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
Bolted down by the back wheel, activated by the heel
What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
There'll be articles in newspapers and dinners at the town hall
My first cheque's for a thousand bucks, now that's one spicy meatball
But all the fame and fortune in the world will not compare
To the joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
Spring
Now bikes around the world can stand alone without their owners
And I can get some cash on the side but that's just a bonus
When underneath their helmets I will see their smiling faces
What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring
Piece of metal and a spring
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