number 9, number 9, number 9....

The Beatles- Revolution 9 [download]

[Bottle of Claret for you if I had realised...

Well, do it next time.

I forgot about it, George, I'm sorry.
Will you forgive me?

Yes.]

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number...

...then there's this Welsh Rarebit wearing some brown underpants
...about the shortage of grain in hertfordshire

Everyone of them knew that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a litter slower but...

It's all the same thing, in this case manufactured by someone who's always/umpteen ...
Your father's giving it diddly-i-dee/district was leaving...
Intended to die ... Ottoman
...long gone through...
I've got to say, irritably and...
...floors, hard enough to put on ... per day's MD in our district
There was not really enough light to get down
And ultimately ... slumped down
Suddenly...

They may stop the funding...
Place your bets
The original
Afraid she'll die ...
Great colours for the season

Number 9, number 9

Who's to know?
Who was to know?

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9

I sustained nothing worse than ...

Also, for example
Whatever you're doing
A business deal falls through

I informed him on the third night, when fortune gives...

People ride, people ride
Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9

Ride! Ride!

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9

...I've missed all of that
It makes me a few days late
Compared with, like, wow!
And weird stuff like that...

...taking our sides sometimes
...floral bark

Rouge doctors have brought this specimen

I have nobody's short-cuts, aha...

9, number 9

...with the situation

They are standing still

The plan, the telegram...
Number 9, number...

A man without terrors from beard to false
As the headmaster reported to my son
He really can try, as they do, to find function...
Tell what he was saying, and his voice was low and his hive high
And his eyes were low...

Alright!

It was on fire and his glasses were the same
This thing knows if it was tinted
But you know it isn't
To me it is...

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9

So the wife called me and we'd better go to see a surgeon to price it ...
Yellow underclothes
So, any road, we went to see the dentist instead
Who gave her a pair of teeth which wasn't any good at all
So I said I'd marry, join the fucking navy and went to sea

In my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair

I'm not in the mood for whirling

How? Dogs for dogging, hands for clapping
Birds for birding and fish for fishing
Them for themming and when for whimming

...only to find the night-watchman unaware of his
presence in the building

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9

Industry allows financial imbalance

Thrusting it between his shoulder blades

The Watusi, the twist

Eldorado

Take this, brother, may it serve you well

Maybe it's nothing
What? What? Oh...

Maybe, even then, impervious in London

...could be difficult thing...
It's quick like rush for peace is because it's so much
Like being naked

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright
It's alright

If, you became naked

Phish- Revolution 9 (10/31/1994.Glens Falls Civic Center) [download]


number nine.

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We are Creatures of The Wind

Wild is The Wind

Love me love me love me
Say you do
Let me fly away
with you
For my love is like
the wind
And wild is the wind

Give me more
than one caress
Satisfy this
hungriness
Let the wind
blow through your heart
For wild is the wind

You...
touch me...
I hear the sound
of mandolins
You...
kiss me...
With your kiss
my life begins
You're spring to me
All things
to me

Don't you know you're
life itself
Like a leaf clings
to a tree
Oh my darling,
cling to me
For we're creatures
of the wind
And wild is the wind
So wild is the wind

Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind

Nina Simone-Wild Is the Wind [download]
David Bowie- Wild Is the Wind [download]
Cat Power- Wild Is the Wind [download]

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Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

written by Carole King & Gerry Goffin

Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure
Can I believe the magic of your sighs
Will you still love me tomorrow

Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I'm the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun

I'd like to know that your love
Is love I can be sure of
So tell me now and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow

Carole King- Will You Love Me Tomorrow [download]
Wilco- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow [download]
Amy Winehouse- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow [download]

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The Origin of Love

As sung by Hedwig and the Angry Inch

The Origin of Love [download mp3]
Rufus Wainwright- The Origin of Love [download]
inspired by Aristophanes’ speech in Plato’s Symposium

Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that of either Pausanias or Eryximachus. Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am teaching you.

In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it. The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, of which the name survives but nothing else. Once it was a distinct kind, with a bodily shape and a name of its own, constituted by the union of the male and the female: but now only the word 'androgynous' is preserved, and that as a term of reproach.

In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and the same number of feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.

Now the sexes were three, and such as I have described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and moved round and round because they resembled their parents. Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods; of them is told the tale of Otys and Ephialtes who, as Homer says, attempted to scale heaven, and would have laid hands upon the gods.

Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then there would be an end of the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained. At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way.

He said: 'Methinks I have a plan which will enfeeble their strength and so extinguish their turbulence; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the advantage of making them more profitable to us. They shall walk upright on two legs, and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them again and they shall hop about on a single leg.'

He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn in order that man might contemplate the section of himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility. Apollo was also bidden to heal their wounds and compose their forms. So he gave a turn to the face and pulled the skin from the sides all over that which in our language is called the belly, like the purses which draw tight, and he made one mouth at the centre, which he fastened in a knot (the same which is called the navel); he also moulded the breast and took out most of the wrinkles, much as a shoemaker might smooth leather upon a last; he left a few, however, in the region of the belly and navel, as a memorial of the primeval state.

After the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one, they began to die from hunger and self-neglect, because they did not like to do anything apart; and when one of the halves died and the other survived, the survivor sought another mate, man or woman as we call them,--being the sections of entire men or women,--and clung to that.

Thus they were being destroyed, when Zeus in pity invented a new plan: he turned the parts of generation round to the front, for this had not been always their position, and they sowed the seed no longer as hitherto like grasshoppers in the ground, but in one another; and after the transposition the male generated in the female in order that by the mutual embraces of man and woman they might breed, and the race might continue; or if man came to man they might be satisfied, and rest, and go their ways to the business of life. So ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, seeking to make one of two, and to heal the state of man.

Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the tally-half of a man, and he is always looking for his other half. Men who are a section of that double nature which was once called androgynous are lovers of women; adulterers are generally of this breed, and also adulterous women who lust after men. The women who are a section of the woman do not care for men, but have female attachments; the female companions are of this sort. But they who are a section of the male follow the male, and while they are young, being slices of the original man, they have affection for men and embrace them, and these are the best of boys and youths, because they have the most manly nature.

Some indeed assert that they are shameless, but this is not true; for they do not act thus from any want of shame, but because they are valiant and manly, and have a manly countenance, and they embrace that which is like them. And these when they grow up become our statesmen, and these only, which is a great proof of the truth of what I am saying. When they reach manhood they are lovers of youth, and are not naturally inclined to marry or beget children,--if at all, they do so only in obedience to custom; but they are satisfied if they may be allowed to live with one another unwedded;

And such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together, and yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.

Suppose Hephaestus, with his instruments, to come to the pair who are lying side by side and to say to them, 'What do you mortals want of one another?'

They would be unable to explain. And suppose further, that when he saw their perplexity he said: 'Do you desire to be wholly one; always day and night in one another's company? for if this is what you desire, I am ready to melt and fuse you together, so that being two you shall become one, and while you live live a common life as if you were a single man, and after your death in the world below still be one departed soul, instead of two--I ask whether this is what you lovingly desire and whether you are satisfied to attain this?'--

There is not a man of them who when he heard the proposal would deny or would not acknowledge that this meeting and melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, was the very expression of his ancient need.

And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time, I say, when we were one, but now because of the wickedness of mankind God has dispersed us, as the Arcadians were dispersed into villages by the Lacedaemonians. And if we are not obedient to the gods, there is a danger that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-relievo, like the profile figures showing only one half the nose which are sculptured on monuments, and that we shall be like tallies. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety in all things, that we may avoid evil and obtain the good, taking Love for our leader and commander.

Let no one oppose him--he is the enemy of the gods who opposes him. For if we are friends of God and at peace with him we shall find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world at present. I am serious, and therefore I must beg Eryximachus not to make fun or to find any allusion in what I am saying to Pausanias and Agathon, who, as I suspect, are both of the manly nature, and belong to the class which I have been describing. But my words have a wider application--they include men and women everywhere; and I believe that if our loves were perfectly accomplished, and each one returning to his primeval nature had his original true love, then our race would be happy. And if this would be best of all, the best in the next degree must in present circumstances be the nearest approach to such a union; and that will be the attainment of a congenial love.

Wherefore, if we would praise him who has given to us the benefit, we must praise the god Love, who is our greatest benefactor, both leading us in this life back to our own nature, and giving us high hopes for the future, for he promises that if we are pious, he will restore us to our original state, and heal us and make us happy and blessed.

This, Eryximachus, is my discourse of love, which, although different to yours, I must beg you to leave unassailed by the shafts of your ridicule, in order that each may have his turn; each, or rather either, for Agathon and Socrates are the only ones left.

à la française

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Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You wanna be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name

You wanna go where people know
People are all the same
You wanna go where everybody knows your name

This video from back when I liked Shaq and was blinded to his true nature, aka after the 2002 season shows him taunting Vlade Divac and the Sacramento Kings to the music of his ringtone and it reminded me of how much I really love that Cheers theme song
(from Fanhouse )


and so I tried to find, since it is one of the best and most famous theme songs ever, some parodies of it (though not included are the inside joke or too obscure even for me ones)


From the Flaming Moe's episode of The Simpsons


the Fatal Farm alternate Cheers Intro


an interesting animation style, not really sure about what the guy is doing with his voice but here is an (inevitable maybe regrettable) parody Queers


along those same lines here is fat and disgusting Artie Lange singing his Gay Cheers Theme

a Garden State trailer/ Where Everybody Knows Your Name mashup


This isn’t a parody but rather licensed version in Germany where the theme and show was called Prost Helmut

"Prost' is a German form of 'Cheers,' and Helmut is the name given to Norm, so the title literally translates "Cheers, Norm," interesting since George Wendt was not the leading part.

The theme is translated as follows:

To survive the everyday anger
Costs much time
If you work for hours
You're exhausted
Who doesn't want to get away from everything?

Then you search for a bar,
Where you feel at home.
And you can drink away our worries.
Where you meet your friends,
And talk, and drink, and drown your sorrows,
And be happy until the early morning.

Discussions, and fighting, and then we make up
In a close group!
Where Everybody Knows Your Name

and here are the full lyrics to Gary Portnoy's "Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn't you like to get away?

All those night when you've got no lights
The check is in the mail
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by it's tail
And your third fiance didn't show

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You want to be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same
You want to be where everybody knows your name

Roll out of bed, Mr Coffee's dead
The morning's looking bright
And your shrink ran off to Europe
And didn't even write
And your husband wants to be a girl

Be glad there's one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You want to go where people know
People are all the same
You want to go where everybody knows your name

Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came

Such a great song
Are there any good tv theme songs left? I can’t think of a single one.

Gary Portnoy- Where Everybody Knows Your Name [download]
Flaming Moe's [download]

Discussions, and fighting, and then we make up
In a close group!
Where Everybody Knows Your Name

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‘Cause This is Thriller Night

I wrote about this long long ago as my stuck in my head song of the day but apparently 25 years ago today was the day this album was released (sorry I misthought- today is the day the Thriller anniversary remix album is released) so this may be more appropriate
Here's a tonne of Michael Jackson info
From an LA Times retrospective

"Thriller": If ever a video killed the radio star, "Thriller" was it. The song was adequately groovy -- funked-out beat, lyrics seemingly lifted from some little kid's "scary storybook" -- but the video was legendary: bearing a price tag of $800,000, the 14-minute mini-film was the most expensive video of its time. Back then it was over the top; to today's viewer, jaded by bloated-budget videos, it still looks epic -- and deliciously campier than ever. That dialogue ("I'm not like other guys")! That Vincent Price rap interlude! And, most of all, those choreographed zombies, dancing in a style that -- thanks to Usher, Ne-Yo and Chris Brown -- still gets its close-up on MTV. (Baz Dreisinger)

It's close to midnight
something evil's lurkin' from the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller
Thriller night
And no one's gonna save you
From the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller
Thriller night
You're fighting for your life
Inside a killer
Thriller tonight, yeah

You hear the door slam
And realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand
And wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination
Girl, but all the while
You hear a creature creepin' up behind
You're outta time

'Cause this is thriller
Thriller night
There ain't no second chance
Against the thing with the forty eyes, girl
(Thriller)
(Thriller night)
You're fighting for your life
Inside a killer
Thriller tonight

Night creatures call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time
(They're open wide)
This is the end of your life

They're out to get you
There's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you
Unless you change that number on your dial
Now is the time
For you and I to cuddle close together, yeah
All through the night
I'll save you from the terror on the screen
I'll make you see

That this is thriller
Thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more
Than any goule would ever dare try
(Thriller)
(Thriller night)
So let me hold you tight
And share a
(killer, diller, chiller)
(Thriller here tonight)

'Cause this is thriller
Thriller night
Girl, I can thrill you more
Than any goule would ever dare try
(Thriller)
(Thriller night)
So let me hold you tight
And share a
(killer, thriller)

I'm gonna thrill you tonight

[Rap]
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell

I'm gonna thrill you tonight
(Thriller, thriller)
I'm gonna thrill you tonight
(Thriller night, thriller))
I'm gonna thrill you tonight
Ooh, babe, I'm gonna thrill you tonight
Thriller night, babe

[Rap]
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
for no mere mortal can resist
the evil of the thriller

And here's that most famous of videos

Michael Jackson - Thriller
Uploaded by hakim93200

Michael Jackson-Thriller [download]

and because I can’t do this without mentioning not only one of the best songs on this album and probably ever but also one of my personal favorites
on "Billie Jean":

Twenty-five years later, "Thriller's" central chamber has lost none of its fevered mystery. This is where the album's material plane gives way to a haunted interior, excavated by that remorseless bass line and shaped by a taut interplay of instruments -- the arrangement is ingenious, so lean and spare that it's hard to accept that there are three synthesizers at work. Jackson finds a new voice here, a victim's voice that shudders in the shadows of this remarkable sonic space, lashing at his own naiveté and at the false accusers who were just starting to gather at his door. (Richard Cromelin)

this is the official video which still confuses me a lot but this is the performance that my mom (constantly) tells me is the one that made Michael Jackson “Michael Jackson” and yeah it’s hot. From Motown 25


She was more like a beauty queen
From a movie scene
I said, don't mind
But what do you mean
I am the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round
She said I am the one who will dance
On the floor in the round

She told me her name was Billie Jean
As she caused a scene
Then every head turned with eyes
That dreamed of being the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round

People always told me
Be careful what you do
And don't go around
Breaking young girls' hearts
And mother always told me,
Be careful who you love
Be careful what you do
'Cause the lie becomes the truth

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that
I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one
But the kid is not my son

For forty days and forty nights
The law was on her side
But who can stand
When she's in demand
Her schemes and plans
'Cause we danced on the floor in the round
So take my strong advice
Just remember to always think twice
(Do think twice)
Do think twice
Hooo

She told my baby
We’d danced ‘til three
Then she looked at me
Then showed a photo
My baby cried
His eyes were like mine (oh, no!)
Coz we dance on the floor, in the round, baby

People always told me
Be careful of what you do
And don't go around
Breaking young girls' hearts
(Don't break no hearts)

She came and stood right by me
Then the smell of sweet perfume
This happened much too soon
She called me to her room

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that
I am the one
But the kid is not my son
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that
I am the one
But the kid is not my son
No, no
She says I am the one
(Oh, babe)
But the kid is not my son

Hee, hee, hee!
Hoo!
Hoo!

She says I am the one
But the kid is not my son
No, no, no
Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that
I am the one

(You know what you did to me, babe)
But the kid is not my son
No, no, no, no
No, no

She says I am the one
But the kid is not my son

No, no

She says I am the one
You know what you did
She says he is my son
Breaking my heart, babe
She says I am the one

Billie Jean is not my lover
Billie Jean is not my lover

and here’s Chris Cornell’s version


Michael Jackson- Billie Jean [download]
Chris Cornell- Billie Jean [download]
I really really love that song.

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With earplugs in, it’s less dangerous

Smells Like Teen Spirit as performed by ukuleles


and “The ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain” as seen on Later...With Jools Holland

How bizarre!

Dear god what would Kurt think?

Though to be fair it’s still a thousand times better (in a purely unironic way) than “this” the Hackley School Massacre

(p.s. I love the description on the youtube page
"This is the entire god-awful performance. Quite possibly the worst cover of any song ever recorded in the history of the universe. Enjoy!")
( p.p.s. why couldn’t they perform on the stage which is right behind them?)
(p.p.p.s this one is pretty awful as well but not nearly as earnest and they’re Italian so I’ll cut some slack)

Oh well. Whatever. Nevermind.

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Over and over and over and over and over

Hot Chip- Over & Over

Here is the official video- it’s fun

And this is a good and fun performance
but I like the vibe of this performances from Amsterdam better

Laid back
Laid back
Laid back, we'll give you laid back
Laid back
Laid back
Laid back, I'll give you laid back

Over and over and over and over and over
Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal
The joy of repetition really is in you
Under and under and under and under and under
The smell of repetition really is on you
And when I feel this way I really am with you

Laid back
Laid back
Laid back, I'll give you laid back

Over and over and over and over and over
Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal
The joy of repetition really is in you
Under and under and under and under and under Instant Song Lyrics
The smell of repetition really is on you
And when you look this way I really am with you

Started thinking about what I to have to do (tell you)
I got to thinking that I mean just what you do (tell you)
Started thinking about what I to have to do (tell you, tell you, tell you, tell you)
K-i-s-s-i-n-g
S-e-x-i-n-g
C-a-s-i-o
P-o-k-e
Y-o-u
M-e
I
K-i-s-s-i-n-g
S-e-x-i-n-g
C-a-s-i-o
P-o-k-e
Y-o-u
M-e
I

Hot Chip- Over & Over [download]
Over & Over (diplo remix) [download]

like a monkey with a miniature cymbal

(and thus concludes the first and last one hundred and two post week this site will see)

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Twas The Night...

before Christmas and all through that jazz

Here is Mary K Mart the mistress and hostess of the too much fun Drag Bingo in Durham (which I wrote a huge paper on) doing her "Trailer Park" version of the classic "A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas)" at Flex, a gay club in Raleigh


and here are a few of the hundreds/thousands/millions of re-tellings and reinterpretations
Edwin S. Porter’s 1905 version


1933




Tom & Jerry


Tay Zonday


Al Bundy’s


Blue Collar Comedy


A Cajun Night Before Christmas


John Cleese


and a few rather random ones (by real people!)


by Kaia


some college kids


The Stallions


Dad’s


and Barcelona Edition


I think we’re all lucky I have no follow through and didn’t do my Yiddish version- it’s a Christmas miracle!

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Angel from Montgomery

So I kind of as an aside posted this song, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne’s cover of John Prine’s Angel from Montgomery earlier in my obligatory daily John Edwards post but I had never heard it before and really didn’t pay attention to it too much then. But I listened to it again and I wanted to give it a more prominent place because it is such a tremendous song full of just longing and heartbreak of an everyday life and one that I didn't want to just slip away in the ether of this site. And Bonnie’s voice is just shattering. It's really beautiful
I am truly a big fan of real soulful country music.

I am an old woman
named after my mother
an old man is another
child who's grown old

If dreams were thunder
lightning was desire
this old house it would've burned down
a long time ago

Make me an angel
that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
that I can hold on to
to believe in this livin'
is just a hard way to go

When i was a young girl
I had me a cowboy
it wasn't much to look at
it was a free ramblin' man
There was a long time
no matter how I tried
the years they just rolled by
like a broken down dance

Make me an angel
that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
that I can hold on to
to believe in this livin'
is just a hard way to go

There's flies in the kitchen
I can hear them there buzzin'
And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today
But how the hell can a person
go on to work in the morning
to come home in the evening
and have nothing to say

Make me an angel
that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
that I can hold on to
to believe in this livin'
is just a hard way to go

[download]

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Your Stuck in my Head Song of the Day

I don't know why but I find this song just incredibly sexy. It's "Jack the Ripper" by Morrissey and I don't know if it'd like the breathy vocals by Moz or just how the chords are strummed and held but like the first minute of the song I just want to put on too much eye liner and strip down to my bra and panties and just dance. It's really weird. And the line "And oh, you look so tired/(But tonight you presumed too much)"I really don't understand what it means but it's like my favorite line maybe because of that mystery. This whole song just gives off a quality of mystery and danger, as if you were walking on a foggy night on the streets of White Chapel.

Oh, you look so tired
Mouth slack and wide
Ill-housed and ill-advised
Your face is as mean
As your life has been

Crash into my arms
I want you
You don't agree -
But you don't refuse
I know you

And I know a place
Where no one is likely to pass
Oh, you don't care if it's late
And you don't care if you're lost
And oh, you look so tired
(But tonight you presumed too much)
Too much, too much
And if it's the last
Thing I ever do
I'm gonna get you

Crash into my arms
I Want You
You don't agree -
But you don't refuse
I know you

And no one knows a thing about my life
I can come and go as I please
And if I want to, I can stay
Oh, or if I want to, I can leave
Nobody knows me
Nobody knows me
Nobody knows me
Nobody knows me
Oh, oh
Nobody knows me
Oh, oh

So strangely erotic. Mystery is hot. Anyway here is Morrissey with Your Stuck in my Head Song of the Day, Jack the Ripper


Morrissey- Jack the Ripper [download] buy it on iTunes

Colin Meloy- Jack the Ripper [download]

And if it's the last
Thing I ever do
I'm gonna get you

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Your Stuck in my Head Song of the Day

Today, Your Stuck in My Head Song of The Day is I Want You Back as sung by KT Tunstall but made world famous by the Jackson 5(featuring the one and only Tito) and I had seriously forgotten it was so, so good.

Here is the original version from The Jackson 5 in 1969 off their first album, if you're unfamiliar with it (because, I don't know you've been living under a rock on Mars) p.s. I have a feeling that lead singer is going to go far

Michael Jackson was such a cute little black boy.

and here's the KT Tunstall version that first got stuck in my head today and made me think of this song for the first time in a long long while and... to be honest, I think she'd be more likely to sing a song of lament over a the love of lost girl than Michael would. But I just really love her version, the solo folky funk and the smokiness of her voice.
Anyway here is Your Stuck in My Head Song of The Day: KT Tunstall's I Want You Back

what cool lighting on that set, eh?

KT Tunstall-I Want You Back [download]
Jackson 5- I Want You Back [download] buy it on iTunes


enjoy your weekend everyone. hopefully out here it'll stop raining and I'll stop being sick so I can enjoy mine as well.
out.

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Making Math Fun(is the)Ky

Yeah, I'm not in love with that title either.

Anyway I think the BWE website had a link to this site and this amazing t-shirt
(that I absolutelty want but don't think I'm ironic or cool enough to pull off) but it reminded me of a link I shared on facebook a month or so ago, the "rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs" site. And though some were repetitive or uninspired and I wasn't familiar with 100% of the references I still really enjoyed quite a few

and so in a form of tribute/ a type of game and because my brain doesn't want to think of anything more creative I'm going to list a few songs and you can see if you can match the song to the mathematical representation
(or just download the following songs; whichever will be funner)

Kelis-Milk Shake [download]
NaS- One Mic [download]
The Notorious B.I.G. (featuring Mase)- Mo' Money, Mo' Problem [download]
Ice Cube- It Was a Good Day [download]
Jay-Z: 99 Problems [download]
Jay-Z: I Just Wanna Love You (Give It To Me)[download]
Ludacris-Act a Fool [download]

2Pac-All Eyez on Me [download]
Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg-Outro [download]
Ben Folds- Bitches Ain't Shit [download]
2Pac- Hit 'Em Up [download]
Wu-Tang Clan- Ain't Nothin' Ta Fuck Wit' [download]

everybody's a winner.

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Best Band Ever*

*according to me, at this moment, subject to change

So, this wasn't my best weekend/holiday, in fact it was quite dark and painful and scary but yesterday, I'm not sure if I put her on or if it was an example of iTunes Providence but Lauryn Hill started playing and it kinda helped getting further through the joys of depression. And so since it is so rare that inspiration and a deadline meet, and I haven't done a "new" one of these in weeks, and her career fits this perfectly for me (not a long or incredibly prolific one so I'm not intimidated but with something there) Lauryn Hill is the Best Band Ever.*

The first time I heard of Lauryn Hill I , like a lot of other people had no idea who she was) or would become)- she was just the girl featured rather prominently in Sister Act 2 who could sing the roof off. (and when your mom is a musician and a minister and your older brother is a musical queen, you get repeatedly exposed to such things.) Judging from the outfits this had to have been like 1994 and so she was a few years away from her great success but it was obvious that there was something there- from her rooftop "freestyle" in the cipher

to her piano playing duet of His Eye is on The Sparrow

(it was obviously big in Japan)
to her commanding stage performance at a regional choir competition

(i'm not sure exactly of the plot but I feel it was something like inner city "urban" school in danger of being closed needs to win a choir competition in order to stay open but Lauryn Hill, the best singer and savior isn't allowed to participate, maybe because her musician father left her mom?)
You could definitely see her going someplace big, especially considering she was only like 18 at the time.
Someplace big was found when The Fugees dropped The Score, which I remember being essential. I remember she bought such a melodic element to the group, but her raps were also, if not the best in the group, at least better than Pras'. And her rhyme in Ready or Not is still one of my favorites

play my enemies like a game of chess, where I rest,
No stress
If you don't smoke sess, lest.
I must confess, my destiny's manifest
In some Goretex and sweats I make treks like I'm homeless
Rap orgies with Porgy and Bess,
Capture your bounty like Elliot Ness, YES
Bless you if you represent the Fu
But I'll hex you with some witch's brew if you're Doo Doo
Voo Doo,
I can do what you do, easy, BELIEVE ME
Frontin' niggas give me hee-bee-gee-bees
So while you're imitating Al Capone
I'll be Nina Simone
And defecating on your microphone

.


but of course the song that was everywhere, absolutely everywhere that probably will pay for Roberta Flack's great great great grand kids' college was Killing Me Softly (I remember when I listened to Howard Stern-i was 13, some slack please- but he said something like ti sounded like Roberta Flack singing on the subway while she was being accosted; racist as that is it stuck with me)

Then they broke up for whatever reasons, egos maybe. Pras wanting to shine. Don't know but for some reason I didn't pay real attention when The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came out. I think maybe partly it was because I recognized the title from a book that one of my professorial types wanted me to read, or that I wasn't feeling the singles (when I was 14 or 15 I wasn't thinking too much about children, spirituality or relationships and dissolution, at least not in a real way) and I was in a different musical phase (see: 2pac) so I was rather indifferent to it. Plus Ghetto Superstar was huge and I (kinda wanted to be Mya) could see a huge star in Pras Michel and thought at the time (and today) that Bulworth was criminally overlooked. But as I grew up and experienced life and got past the singles that I wasn't that fond of (Doo Wop, Lost Ones) I realized that I absolutely adored her when she sang and that what she was saying was so passionate and uplifting, beautiful and tragic but all so universal and real, which is the feeling that all good art gives off. Like in Everything is Everything
Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually

I wrote these words for everyone
Who struggles in their youth
Who won't accept deception
Instead of what is truth
It seems we lose the game,
Before we even start to play
Who made these rules? We're so confused
Easily led astray
Let me tell ya that
Everything is everything
Everything is everything
After winter, must come spring
Everything is everything

Now, everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually

Sometimes it seems
We'll touch that dream
But things come slow or not at all
And the ones on top, won't make it stop
So convinced that they might fall
Let's love ourselves then we can't fail
To make a better situation
Tomorrow, our seeds will grow
All we need is dedication


and Ex-Factor makes me cry every time I hear it- I don't think I was in love with anyone at this point, but the hurt in her voice you can't help but feel. This may be my favorite song of hers

No matter how I think we grow
You always seem to let me know
It ain't workin'
It ain't workin'
And when I try to walk away
You'd hurt yourself to make me stay
This is crazy
This is crazy
Care for me, care for me
You said you care for me
There for me, there for me
Said you'd be there for me
Cry for me, cry for me
You said you'd die for me
Give to me, give to me
Why won't you live for me

(and looking at that video I realize that subconsciously I've been going for her look-who knew?)
And then her work on soundtracks around this time was just amazing, like Sweetest Thing, such a great song about relationships and all bitter sweetness that goes into them

and her Can't Take My Eyes of Off You which was one of the best thing about Conspiracy Theory (and that I did not realize was a Frankie Vali)
And then she too went away and all anyone heard were rumours that she was going crazy (Chappelle style) or that she was racist and would rather have her kids starve than have white people buy her album
She came back like in 2002 and all anyone could talk about was how much she had changed and how different her music was and how she was done, not realizing that artists have to grow and evolve and change, which is what she is and is what she did According to Wikipedia

For two or three years I was away from all social interaction. It was a very introspective time because I had to confront my fears and master every demonic thought about inferiority, about insecurity or the fear of being black, young and gifted in this western culture. It took a considerable amount of courage, faith and risk to gain the confidence to be myself. I had to deal with folks who weren’t happy about that. I was a young woman with an evolved mind who was not afraid of her beauty or her sexuality. For some people that's uncomfortable. They didn't understand how female and strong work together. Or young and wise. Or Black and divine.

During this time, Hill abandoned celebrity and stopped doing interviews. She stopped watching television and listening to music and explored other methods of expressing herself, including creating and writing an extensive amount of music, poetry, screenplays, clothing designs, etc.

People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time. There was much more strength, spirit and passion, desire, curiosity, ambition and opinion that was not allowed in a small space designed for consumer mass appeal and dictated by very limited standards. I had to step away when I realized that for the sake of the machine, I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable about having to smile in someone’s face when I really didn’t like them or even know them well enough to like them.I had to fight for an identity that doesn’t fit in one of their boxes. I’m a whole woman. And when I can’t be whole, I have a problem. By the end I was like, I’ve got to get out of here.

and though the songs were more spiritual, lyrical and less formed and radio ready, and so "less accessible" as I've said before there is very little truer than a singer and their guitar, especially one who comes with such vulnerability. In many of these songs you can see her crafting and putting together the song, which is a powerful thing (and something that has been praised about Bob Dylan's I'm Not There) In other words I really loved it
here's I find it Hard To Say (Rebel)

and the vulnerability and emotion in I Gotta Find Peace of Mind

The Mystery of Iniquity , that was memorably sampled by Kanye in All Falls Down

and for her MTV Unplugged performance, it is such a spiritual, deep and emotional one that the lyrics carry a lot of weight and are like those lyrics you actually wanna study because you understand them and how they relater to you but there's something more inside, and I said all that to say "so since I can't post them all you should go here to study them"
After that there were rumours and teases of a Fugees reunion and not much more solo material (besides Lose Myself from Surf's Up- which seemed to me like Happy Feet on Surfboards, I guess her kids love it)

but I still have faith and she's really grown in importance to me over the past year and so I 'm looking forward to whatever she decides to put out

And so since she's inspired many many legions of Youtube covers, she's still only 32 and she spoke truth to power at the Vatican, Lauryn Hill is the Best Band Ever*

buy the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and/or MTV Unplugged 2.o

A Few MP3s:
The Fugees- Killing Me Softly [download]
The Fugees- Ready or Not [download]
Refugee Camp All Stars- Sweetest Thing [download]

Ex-Factor [download]
Everything is Everything [download]
Nothing Even Matters (feat. D'Angelo) [download]
To Zion [download]
When It Hurts So Bad [download]
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill [download]

I Get Out [download]
Oh Jerusalem [download]
I Just Want You Around [download]
I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel) [download]
The Mystery of Iniquity [download]

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You [download]
Franki Vali and the Four Seasons- Can't Take My Eyes Off of You [download]

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A Song I Wish I Could've Written

but that Jackson Browne was able to write at sixteen (16!)
It's These Days and it is one of those perfect songs for an autumn or winter day where you just kind of feel...like you don't know what to feel. Like one of those days. I guess I really listened to the lyrics for the first time today and they just struck me. I think it's the weather.

These Days

Well I've been out walking
I don't do that much talking these days
These days--
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
It's so hard to risk another these days
These days--
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing for so long

I'll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
One of these days--
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

Nico's version is the one I'm most familiar with and the one I personally like the best but the Jackson Browne and Gregg Allman versions sort of give off that autumnal melancholy vibe a little bit more.

Nico- These Days [download] buy it on iTunes


Jackson Browne- These Days [download] buy it on iTunes


Gregg Allman- These Days [download] buy it on iTunes



one in an occasional series

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Best Band Ever*

*according to me, at this moment, subject to change

This has been one of my favorite bands for awhile but I was kind of shying away from doing them here because they're a little depressing (and also I'm sure there are millions of people who know more about them than I and I hate being wrong) but with the post punk/new wave vibe of Gang of Four from last night (though the sounds are so different) and the fact I'm still not feeling "not dead" while the sky is still a sad shade of gray, I feel this is as good a time as any. And so Joy Division is the Best Band Ever.*

I think I first heard about Joy Division because of their connection to New Order, a band which I really enjoy, and so when I learned that New Order came from Joy Division I did my whole music research thing. But here's where my chronology gets fuzzy in my mind, whether I learned about Ian Curtis and his suicide (and mystique of dying young and alone) or whether I first heard the title of their song "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and thought it was the most brilliant thing ever. Let's go with the latter path. So this was around I think when I was going through a break up, which wasn't a break up because we didn't care about each other anymore, but that we were young and living across the country and felt it wouldn't be fair to either of us. And so I enjoyed the melancholy notion of love being the thing that can ruin a great friendship and cause irrepairbable divide. But also the fact that, as I felt at the time,relationships can induce boredom and that familiarity breeds contempt, which you can totally read in the lyrics

When routine bites hard,
And ambitions are low,
And resentment rides high,
But emotions won't grow,
And we're changing our ways,
Taking different roads.

Then love, love will tear us apart again.
Love, love will tear us apart again.

Why is the bedroom so cold?
You've turned away on your side.
Is my timing that flawed?
Our respect runs so dry.
Yet there's still this appeal
That we've kept through our lives.

But love, love will tear us apart again.
Love, love will tear us apart again.

You cry out in your sleep,
All my failings exposed.
And there's a taste in my mouth,
As desperation takes hold.
Just that something so good
Just can't function no more
But love, love will tear us apart again...

Once I listened to the song though I didn't think of such philosophy rather just how different the lightness of the melody,and the acoustic sound of the first guitar strut was from what I expected out of a band led by an eventual suicide and named after those who were forced to be prostitutes in the Nazi death camps.

Love Will Tear Us Apart (download)

Once I had this introduction I was sort of drawn to their other stuff, which was how I discovered what is, according to my iTunes play count, my most played (and thus favorite) song, Warsaw, which kind of surprised me when I learned that fact but then on second sight it made sense because it has that punk feel, it's short and fast and has a nice element of singability especially for a song inspired by Rudolf Hess

3, 5, 0, 1, 2, 5, Go!

I was there in the back stage,
When first light came around.
I grew up like a changeling,
To win the first time around.
I can see all the weakness.
I can pick all the faults.
Well I concede all the faith tests,
Just to stick in your throats.

31G, 31G, 31G

I hung around in your soundtrack,
To mirror all that you've done,
To find the right side of reason,
To kill the three lies for one,
I can see all the cold facts.
I can see through your eyes.
All this talk made no contact.
No matter how hard we tried.

31G, 31G, 31G

I can still hear the footsteps.
I can see only walls.
I slid into your man-traps,
With no hearing at all.
I just see contradiction,
Had to give up the fight,
Just to live in the past tense,
To make believe you were right.

31G, 31G, 31G

3, 5, 0, 1, 2, 5

(350125 being Hess' prisoner number)
Warsaw (download)
which lead me to deciding they were like the greatest band ever. And as I mentioned before in this post and on this site the notion of the doomed and tragic lead singer committing suicide had a kind of morbid fascination (as did the mystery surrounding Ian Curtis' death and what in Iggy Pop's The Idiot or Werner Herzog's Stroszek made him take that final step. I couldn't find it-thank heaven.) And though one obituary said" Now no one will remember what his work with Joy Division was like when he was alive; it will be perceived as tragic rather than courageous" if you just read their lyrics it is not quite a happy picture. Here's Atmosphere (and its gray lyrics and gray video)

Atmosphere (download)
I also loved New Dawn Fades, not only for the awesomeness of the title, though that was the reason at first, or that it fit my image of them but also that guitar crunching strumming is reminiscent of a song I can't place, but one that you can hear in a lot of places.

A change of speed, a change of style.
A change of scene, with no regrets,
A chance to watch, admire the distance,
Still occupied, though you forget.
Different colours, different shades,
Over each mistakes were made.
I took the blame.
Directionless so plain to see,
A loaded gun won't set you free.
So you say.

We'll share a drink and step outside,
An angry voice and one who cried,
'We'll give you everything and more,
The strain's too much, can't take much more.'
Oh, I've walked on water, run through fire,
Can't seem to feel it anymore.
It was me, waiting for me,
Hoping for something more,
Me, seeing me this time, hoping for something else.

New Dawn Fades (download)
Shadow Play

Shadow Play (download)
And two other favorite songs, Transmission and She's Lost Control (which I kind of like as an epithet for myself, or at least as an excuse)

Transmission (download)
She's Lost Control (download)
And so for all those reasons, plus the fact I really am intrigued by Control (and love Samantha Morton) and the fact that to deflect criticism of his band Paul Banks said that he had never heard of them(which is a ludicrous statement for a band so steeped in that tradition) even though they're one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years, Joy Division is the Best Band Ever*

Here are more goodies in mp3 form:
Sister Ray (Velvet Underground Cover)[download]
Something Must Break [download] (Maybe my favorite lyrics of any of their songs**)
Jose Gonzalez- Love Will Tear Us Apart [download]
Nouvelle Vague- Love Will Tear Us Apart [download]
Slumber Party- Love Will Tear Us Apart [download]

**Two ways to choose,
On a razor's edge,
Remain behind,
Go straight ahead.
Room full of people, room for just one,
If I can't break out now, the time just won't come.
Two ways to choose,
Which way to go,
Decide for me,
Please let me know.
Looked in the mirror, saw I was wrong,
If I could get back to where I belong, where I belong.
Two ways to choose,
Which way to go,
Had thoughts for one
Designs for both.
But we were immortal, we were not there,
Washed up on the beaches, struggling for air.
I see your face still in my window,
Torments yet calms, won't set me free,
Something must break now,
This life isn't mine,
Something must break now,
Wait for the time,
Something must break.

(and now I'm not actually depressed.)

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Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

I've had this song in or in parts close to my head for quite a few days. It's Patti Smith's version of Them's Gloria. It has nothing really to do with Coming Out day except for maybe that Patti Smith's ex husband Robert Mapplethorpe didn't come out until some time in their relationship (or maybe that the female singer is lusting after a Gloria). But it dosen't matter really and has nothing to do with the song; Patti Smith is such an amazing women like a Punk Poet goddess or at least sacred elder with an amazing style. Which you can recognize in her reimagining of Gloria, a cover that is in my opinion so much better than the original. It is such an amazing song to rock out to and sing at the top of your lungs and has one of the best opening lines ever

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine
meltin' in a pot of thieves
wild card up my sleeve
thick heart of stone
my sins my own
they belong to me, me

people say "beware!"
but I don't care
the words are just
rules and regulations to me, me

I-I walk in a room, you know I look so proud
I'm movin' in this here atmosphere, well, anything's allowed
and I go to this here party and I just get bored
until I look out the window, see a sweet young thing
humpin' on the parking meter, leanin' on the parking meter
oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
and I got this crazy feeling and then I'm gonna ah-ah make her mine
ooh I'll put my spell on her

here she comes
walkin' down the street
here she comes
comin' through my door
here she comes
crawlin' up my stair
here she comes
waltzin' through the hall
in a pretty red dress
and oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
and I got this crazy feeling that I'm gonna ah-ah make her mine

and then I hear this knockin' on my door
hear this knockin' on my door
and I look up into the big tower clock
and say, "oh my God here's midnight!"
and my baby is walkin' through the door
leanin' on my couch she whispers to me and I take the big plunge
and oh, she was so good and oh, she was so fine
and I'm gonna tell the world that I just ah-ah made her mine

and I said darling, tell me your name, she told me her name
she whispered to me, she told me her name
and her name is, and her name is, and her name is, and her name is G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria

I was at the stadium
There were twenty thousand girls called their names out to me
Marie and Ruth but to tell you the truth
I didn't hear them I didn't see
I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock
and I heard those bells chimin' in my heart
going ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong.
ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong
counting the time, then you came to my room
and you whispered to me and we took the big plunge
and oh. you were so good, oh, you were so fine
and I gotta tell the world that I make her mine make her mine
make her mine make her mine make her mine make her mine

G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria,
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria

and the tower bells chime, "ding dong" they chime
they're singing, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine."

Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A.

So here's Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day- Patti Smith's Gloria (performance from SNL)
Patti Smith-Gloria (mp3) buy Horses
Them-Gloria (mp3)

Okay hopefully it can go away now.

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