Beach Boys - It's a Beautiful Day

Artist: Beach Boys

Song: It’s a Beautiful Day

Album: Ten Years of Harmony (1979)

'"It's a Beautiful Day"' is a song written by Mike Love and Al Jardine. The song was never released on an original Beach Boys album, however it was released on the soundtrack to the film Americathon and as a single during September, 1979 with the B-side of the single being "Sumahama". The single charted at #45 in the United States but never charted in the United Kingdom. The song has also been released on the ''Ten Years of Harmony'' Beach Boys compilation album.

Not to be confused with U2’s song of similar name and sentiment. During concerts, Wilsons would sometimes sing lyric, “Bicycle Rider, look what you’ve done,” in certain songs. It finally appears in 2004 as a line in Brian Wilson’s “Roll, Plymouth Rock” from nostalgic Smile, which, like all Beach Boys music, was intended to ease your mind, heal ills, and offer hope. Bike & Chain

OOOOOOOOOW
Livin' down in L.A.
Such A Beautiful day

Whoa whoa
Whoa whoa

The skies are clear
It's a beautiful day in l.a.

People in motion
Our wheels movin all kind a ways

Indoors, outdoors, in the sun
There are people everywhere havin' fun, fun, fun

And when the moon and stars come out at night
We'll know what to do when we turn out the lights (turn out the lights, out the lights)

The freeways there are jammed with all kind of folks on their bikes
With fastball surfers, their all doin' their lefts and their rights

Roller skating, joggin', or a fancy bike
You can get around most anyway you really like

And when the sun is down and the stars are bright
I can hardly wait to get to hold you tight (hold you tight, hold you tight)

OOOOOOOOOOOh
Living down in L.A.
Such a Beautiful Day

Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa

Riding the fastlanes, and ballet in leisurely flight
People in motion the streets there a beautiful sight

In goodtimes, sunshine, you'll feel alright
We'll maybe even do an afternoon delight

You're sure to get as high as the clouds above
Participatin' in this little dance of love (dance of love, dance of love)

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
Living down in L.A.
Such a Beautiful Day

The freeways are jammed now
The cars have disappeared from the scene

Cause' gone to work or to play
They use a whole 'nother kind of machine

OOOOOOOOOOW
Living down in L.A.
Such a beautiful day

Mike Watt - Pluckin' Pedalin' and Paddlin'

Artist: Mike Watt

Song: Pluckin’ Pedalin’ and Paddlin’

Album: The Secondman’s Middle Stand (2005)

 

The Secondman's Middle Stand was Mike Watt's third solo album and the first full-length recording that he had made under his own name since the release of Contemplating The Engine Room in 1997.

The storyline for the nine-track album parallel's Watt's real-life January 2000 bout with a near-fatal infection in his perineum with one of his favorite pieces of literature, Dante's The Divine Comedy. The first three tracks of the album represent the Inferno (Watt's illness up until the time the abscess burst); the second three songs represent the Purgatorio (Watt's surgery and subsequent recovery), and the final three (Pluckin’ Pedalin’ is here) represent the Paradisio (Watt's resuming his everyday life and career).

 

review

 

the making of

 

music

 

sun in my face, breeze at my back, it's easy to see where heaven's at. to think some think it's a pile of bones or something material like a load of gold. sure, that's fine but in my mind... note for note, each thought a vote: plucked strings singing how much I don't know. stating thus w/this little bass then evaporating in the air w/hardly a trace permanently temporarily... tangents, I imagine kept me confused but being a hellride hostage gave me a clue. complicated thinking can sure wear you out - out at sea paddling or pedaling my route... spinning, simply spinning my wheels 'round. pluckin', pedalin' and paddlin'. pluckin', pedalin' and paddlin'. pluckin', pedalin' and paddlin'. there before the mirror, cross-examinatin' - what use is blaming others and situations? thinkin', linkin' responsibility has helped me open possibilities. still, I find myself hollerin' for help. manifesting watt by learning from others? what a mechanism I've discovered! philosophical a la carte... what works, works: parts is parts. a humbler bumbler, a slow learner... the knowing's in the doing if your sights are such, the hamster wheel turning though drives some folks nuts. but wherever I put myself, there I am - what can you do w/a ridiculous man? put foot to pedal and hand to paddle... man, it's funny how things get organized to make them comprehendible, systematized. a stalag, a gulag or a berlin wall - stuck in the head to strain it all and strangle tight out all the life. structure punctured, hey what gives? here in the sphere of contemplatives. up jacob's ladder, flaming sparks - dancing, glancing - igniting up the dark... a top self-spun, climbing up each rung. cornball ways to express stuff profound, 'pert-near the only thing out my mouth. if I had to relate this experience, a wordless breath would be my closest guess - I think that'd sum it up the best.

Paul Simon - My Little Town

Artist: Paul Simon

Song:  My Little Town

Album: Still Crzy After All These Yrs (1975)

 

Paul Simon's third solo album unifies the varied threads running through its predecessors--confessional ballads, wily story songs, agnostic spirituals and snapshots of modern life, circa 1975, are extensions of the models on his self-titled debut and--There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Here, Simon and producer Phil Ramone establish a more cohesive, explicitly urban setting that burnishes the artist's acoustic folk accents to spotlight his sophistication as an inventive composer and, as always, deft wordsmith. Included is his last great collaboration with Art Garfunkel, the bittersweet "My Little Town," a pop gospel romp with Phoebe Snow on "Gone at Last," and the sly adulterer's solution of "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover" (arguably the antithesis of Willie Dixon's classic "29 Ways"), along with the tender "I Do It for Your Love" and the woozy, dissolute "Have a Good Time." Best of all, of course, is the brilliant title song, shifting from anecdotal verse to soaring bridge and colored by keening strings and Phil Woods's knowing tenor-sax solo. Simon was crazy, like a fox. --Sam Sutherland

 

MY LITTLE TOWN has some of the hardest, most biting lyrics on the album which are unfortunately lost in a not particularly memorable melody. It is interesting, but leaves me colder than many of his other songs.

 

In my little town
I grew up believ--ing
God keeps His eye on us all
And He used to lean upon me
As I pledged allegiance to the wall
Lord I recall
My little town

Coming home after school
Flying my bike past the gates
Of the factories
My mom doing the laundry
Hanging our shirts
In the dirty breeze

And after it rains
There's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
It's not that the colors aren't there
It's just imagin-ation they lack
Everything's the same
Back in my little town

Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town

In my little town
I never meant nothin'
I was just my fathers son
Saving my money
Dreaming of glory
Twitching like a finger
On the trigger of a gun
Leaving nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town 

Repeat and fade:
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town  

Kaiser Chiefs - Team Mate

Artist: Kaiser Chiefs

Song:  Team Mate

Album: Employment (2005)

 

Sometimes the greatest success stories sprout from the tiniest of ambitions. When Kaiser Chiefs formed up in Leeds around the summer of 2003, their aim wasn't to conquer stadiums and change the world. Instead, these five Britpop-obsessed oddballs began plotting a rather more modest plan. In the shadowy corners of clubs and venues across the city Ricky Wilson (lead vocals, owner of stylish blue and orange suit), Andrew 'Whitey' White (guitar), Simon Rix (bass), Nick 'Peanut' Baines (keyboards and modeller of impressive pork-pie hats) and Nick Hodgson (drums and vocals) decided to form a band that would harness the awesome capability of being able to blag an early slot at the following year's Leeds Festival.

The Kaisers' story actually begins some time before they'd decided to name themselves after a successful South African football team. School friends Simon, Peanut and Nick had been playing together in various bands since the age of 15 before spying art school graduate and restless-ball-of-energy Ricky singing with a Rolling Stones tribute band.

Right now, everybody wants a piece of the Kaiser Chiefs. Blur producer Stephen Street was so bowled over he offered his services for debut album Employment. A barrage of bouncing art-pop brilliance, it's scheduled to soundtrack 2005 from the minute it hits stereos this March. (Amazon)

 

Employment ends with "Team Mate," a tantalizingly short character sketch that is also the band's best ballad. 

music

review

 

We used to go out nightly
To the armoury
You used to be my team mate
Or that's the way it seemed
We lost our friends
Because you wanted to
They had no faith in you
I had faith in you
You said we don't need anybody new
It's just me and you
On a bicycle for two
Ah ah ahhh
We used to hold on tightly
And you relied on me
I used to to be your team mate
Or that's the way it seemed
We lost our friends
Because you wanted to
They had no faith in you
I had faith in you
We've been everything you wanted to
It was just me and you
On a bicycle for two
Ah ah ahhh
Ah ah ahhh

Paul McCartney - Junk

Artist: Paul McCartney & Wings

Song: Junk

Album: McCartney (1970), Wingspan: Hits and History (2001)

 

"Junk" is a song written by Paul McCartney in 1968 while The Beatles were in India. It was originally under consideration for The White Album. It was passed over for that LP, as it was for Abbey Road. It was eventually released on McCartney's first solo album, McCartney, in 1970. Another version of the song without lyrics, called "Singalong Junk" is also on the album. The version that McCartney played for the rest of The Beatles before the recording of The White Album is included on Anthology 3. The song's working title was "Jubilee".

In 2000, "Junk" was featured in Hanging Up, an American film.

Wingspan: Hits and History  is a greatest hits compilation album by Paul McCartney featuring material spanning his first solo album McCartney in 1970 to the 1984 Give My Regards To Broad Street movie soundtrack. This set is officially credited to Paul McCartney, although the bulk of the music included was performed by McCartney's former band Wings.

review

review 

Beatles version!

music

motor cars, handle bars,
bicycles for two.
broken hearted jubilee.

parachutes, army boots,
sleeping bags for two.
sentimental jamboree.

buy! buy!
says the sign in the shop window.
why? why?
says the junk in the yard.

da da ya da da da,
da da da,
da da ya da da,
da da da da da da da.

candlesticks, building bricks,
something old and new.
memories for you and me.

buy! buy!
says the sign in the shop window.
why? why?
says the junk in the yard.

 

Live instrumental version

Unicycle Loves You - Unycicle Loves You

Artist: Unicycle Loves You

Album: Unicycle Loves You (2008)

 

When listening to Chicago's Unicycle Loves You's self-titled debut, it's pretty clear that this is the product of a band that's spent a lot of time listening to the best music of every era, picking apart exactly what makes each thing great. Not only do they understand it, but they have the brains and chops to be able recreate that magic, blending/shifting between each of these influences flawlessly, while maintaining a singularly cohesive product.

The list of influences seems endless, but Unicycle Loves You never sounds derivative. Album opener "Great Bargains For Seniors" seems to mix everything from Can to The New Pornographers to Television, and that's just the start. Over the course of 10 songs, the band generates an eclectic contemporary history of pop rock as intelligent and catchy as anything any of those influences have ever created. (JL -NY Press)

Mix virtually every successful movement of the last sixty years and see what happens, resulting in ten lively, unpredictable tracks that flow without warning from Belle & Sebastian quirk-rock to late-1970s butt-rock to bluesy psych-rock back to Beach Boys pop.

music

Ben Cristophers - Easter Park

Artist: Ben Cristophers

Song: Easter Park

Album: Spoonface (2001)

 

Sophomore album for Ben Cristophers, UK singer/songwriter. The followup to his 1999 debut 'My Beautiful Demon' with more falsetto folk-electronica. Featuring Faultline's David Kosten again at the production helm, this is a beautifully realized record. Sounding like a cross between Jeff Buckley & early Pink Floyd. Ten tracks including, 'Leaving My Sorrow Behind' & 'Transatlantic Shooting Stars'. Uncut gave it 4 stars saying, '..stunningly combining pin-drop stillness with spooked, unusual arrangements worthy of Mark Hollis (Talk Talk) & a croon cramped in the void between Jeff Buckley & Art Garfunkel...Gorgeous'. 2001.

 

music

 

Racing into town 
Bicycles in line
In your raid 
In your raid I was
Crazy inner feeling flows in here
I'm a child sweet liberty

Heaven knows you thrilled them too
You raid my senses sunny vale

Am I really safe with you
If I dont know you I dont know myself

Heaven knows you thrilled them too
You raid my senses sunny vail

We'll never fade apart
Evergreen and everclear
Welcome in those sunny days
Heavely in Love 
Even if it's getting dark
Pretty one we'll stay home
Heaven knows you thrilled them
You raid my senses