James Cromwell – “If I Had Words” from “Babe” (1995)

Audio Stream:

http://www.imeem.com/people/8O6×8Hy/music/aQeoAXar/james-cromwell-if-i-had-words/

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I know. Life sucks. We are all “born into the grave” so to speak. Humans. The plants. The animals. Everything.

13 years ago though I made a choice though. I wanted it to suck a little less… first for myself. I stopped eating meat starting with beef. I was tired of eating it because I had one too many bad hockey-puck hamburgers (sorry Mom).

It was at that time of my beef boycott I first saw the movie “Babe”. Immediately afterwards I decided I was not going to eat pork ever again. I was going to do my part in not making life suck for “Babe” and all pigs. I know it is like blowing into the wind, especially surrounded by so many meat eaters, but sometimes you have to stick to what you believe even if people think you are crazy or wrong.

I watched “Babe”, yet again, last night and felt reassured and affirmed in my decision. Watching the movie now is like a religious experience for me. I am not so unlike Farmer Hoggett. I believe I am generally quiet and patient in my disposition, and open minded to otherwise abstract, unusual and even bizarre possibilities, just as he is. Although I have never known a pig personally, I do believe them (and all mammals) to be too intelligent for me to consume ethically. I heard the song, “If I Had Words”, played throughout the movie and it was powerful for me. Silly? Perhaps. Do I expect anyone to understand? No. The movie changed my life though. From being annoyed by bad burgers, this movie pressed me to pursuing a new way of eating, and ultimately a new lifestyle that I still have over a decade later. This song represents a sort of theme song for my vegetarianism, and my wish to preserve life, not destroy it.

PS: I only just learned now that the words to this song, “If I Had Words”, were originally written by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley in 1977, with a reggae beat.

PPS: I learned last night that it is actually adapted from the classical piece, the “Maestoso” of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Symphony No. 3 in C Minor”, written in 1886.

PPPS: Also, for those of you who want more, here is the version with the “mice” singing, which is actually just a sped up version of a recording of “If I Had Words” sung by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley. Crazy, right!? Who knew?!

PPPPS: Despite James Comwell’s rendition being made for film, and not for an album, and being very short, and being a cover of a cover so to speak, it still has a modest, humble and honest quality I appreciate greatly.

PPPPPS: PS (or more properly, P.S.) is Latin for “post scriptum”, which means “written after”, and thus PPPPPS is “post post post post post scriptum”, ridiculous for sure, but if you don’t like it, why don’t you go blog about it or eat one of my mom’s hamburgers?

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• Harry Belafonte
• Lolita Ritmanis
• Yann Tiersen

I also suggest the music genre:

• Soundtrack

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Click here for more info on James Cromwell – Babe Soundtrack – “If I Had Words”.

The CD of the soundtrack to “Babe” may be purchased here:

Babe Soundtrack

Harry Belafonte – “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” (1956)

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I watched Beetlejuice and many other Tim Burton movies last month, so naturally the songs featured in the movies are stuck in my head. Today my head sings for the “Tally Man” to “tally me banana”. What I didn’t know is Belafonte didn’t write this song. It is a cover of a Jamaican folk song. It is actually, “a song from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home.”

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• The Foundations
• Marcia Griffiths
• Bobby “Boris” Pickett

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Click here for more info on Harry Belafonte – “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Harry Belafonte - Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)

Carrie Underwood – “Last Name” (2007)

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I’m not really a fan of most of the American Idol winners, but I do like Carrie Underwood. I must say there is something about chicks singing country pop.

I am posting this song today because Kristen Chenowith rocked this song last night on the TV show “Glee”. I was seriously impressed with Kristen’s singing. Kristen Chenowith’s cover version from Glee can be heard here. Seriously, I think Kristen’s version stands up to Carrie Underwood’s original.

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• The Dixie Chicks
• Alan Jackson
• P!nk

I also suggest the music genre:

• Country

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Click here for more info on Carrie Underwood – Carnival Ride – “Last Name”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride

Joe Cocker – “With A Little Help From My Friends” (1969)

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I had a little help from my friends on this one when they pointed it out to me last night. The video above is of Joe Cocker’s well known performance at Woodstock in 1969. What is different about the video above from the original live recording is someone has added lyrics matching what it sounds like Joe is singing. e.g. A couple lines are…

Oh baby, hoggify
All I need is my butt and I

Too funny!

You can listen to the original recorded album version, where Joe has a little bit more diction, here:

http://www.imeem.com/joecocker/music/k-lrf97r/joe-cocker-with-a-little-help-from-my-friends/

I’d like to also point out that although Joe Cocker’s rendition is famous, the song was originally written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released on The Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Joe’s cover is good, but so is the original. It is difficult to say which one I like more.

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• Cream
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• The Rolling Stonges

I also suggest the music genre:

• Blues-Rock

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Click here for more info on Joe Cocker – With a Little Help from My Friends – “With a Little Help from My Friends”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Joe Cocker - With a Little Help from My Friends

Yo-Yo Ma – Ástor Piazzolla’s “Libertango” (1997)

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My post for the song “Moorea” by the Gipsy Kings made me think of this song.

This is a cover of Ástor Piazzolla’s brilliant “Libertango”, which I think of more like a piece of classical music that will survive for generations. Yo-Yo Ma’s attention to Piazzolla by producing an entire album of “covers” adds validation to that claim (and why I am tagging this as classical). It also includes a number of other world class musicians on each instrument. Piazzolla originally wrote the piece in 1974 and I would’ve posted a performance by him, but they appear to be lacking on the Internet.

Ástor Piazzolla, by the way, is essentially the father of Nuevo Tango breathing new life into Tango music and Tango’s sub-genres after decades of stagnation. This song, among others, actually inspired me to take a tango dance class once, where I verified I sucked at dancing, and Tango dancing is not the place to start. I’ll stick with the music.

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• Gipsy Kings
• Steve Sharples
• Yann Tiersen

I also suggest the music genre:

• Nuevo Tango

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Click here for more info on Yo-Yo Ma – Soul of the Tango: The Music of Astor Piazzolla – “Libertango” and here for more information on the composer Ástor Piazzolla

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Yo-Yo Ma - Soul of the Tango: The Music of Astor Piazzolla

Toto – “Africa” (1982)

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I love “80s music”, despite its frequent cheesiness when compared to other rock. I really don’t care. I grew up with it. I embrace it. I don’t know if the guy in the song picks Africa over the girl (I would pick the girl), and I don’t care about that either. This song is a classic in my book.

This song came up because my father emailed me a link to the following a capella cover of Toto’s “Africa” by the Slovenian choir/group “Perpetuum Jazzile”. The simulated rain storm during the first two minutes is particularly cool, at least to those of us who have even been in a choir wearing blue sequin vests.

What? Perpetuum Jazzile doesn’t wear blue sequin vests? Oh, right, that was me. (They seriously looked like this!) I’d blame the drugs in high school, but I was sober. Too much glam rock perhaps?

PS: Although Toto is listed as “Hard Rock” on Wikipedia, I find it hard to believe. Especially when it also is listed as “Soft Rock”. Unlike most genres, I think those two are mutually exclusive. So no “Hard Rock” tag for Toto!

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• Duran Duran
• Kansas
• Moody Blues

I also suggest the music genre:

• Pop Rock

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Click here for more info on Toto – Toto IV – “Africa”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Toto - Toto IV

Etta James – “A Sunday Kind of Love” (1961)

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I dedicate this song to G for 3459 days together.

…who, by the way, got me this sweet new iPod Nano 4G (AKA 4th Generation for you non-iPod users out there) after my 1G’s battery bit the dust and replacing the battery appeared to be unlikely. G is so sweet to me!

My Hot New Green iPod Nano 4G with 16GB

Also, although Etta James covered this song, originally written in 1946 by Barbara Belle, Anita Leonard, Louis Prima, and Stan Rhodes, this version is the one to know and love, just like G.

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Song Recommendations

If you like this song, I also suggest:

• Marvin Gaye
• The Shirelles
• Frank Sinatra

I also suggest the music genre:

• Soul

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Click here for more info on Etta James – At Last! – “A Sunday Kind of Love”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Etta James - At Last!

The Polyphonic Spree – “Lithium” (2006)

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I love Nirvana’s original version of “Lithium”, but today I felt like something a little different. This cover by The Polyphonic Spree is totally awesome in my book. Some commenter on the youtube video above referred to the group and to cover as “gay”. Really though, with the whole chorus of Polyphonic Spree singers belting out the lines, it has a sort of crazed mob feeling to it that the original lacks. In fact in some ways the group in this cover sounds even closer to the ‘craking’ point the song speaks of. And the instrumentation only adds to it with the blend of keyboards, violin, cello, harp, & slide whistles on the one hand, and horns, guitars & drums on the other. So many instruments and voices in a wall of sound at the climax of the song, it is an awesome sound and scene, on the edge of chaos, that I think pays tribute to the kind of thinking that led to the original song by Nirvana.

By the way, they say the white robes are there to provide the “image of purity, hope, and happiness”, but really with up to 27 performers at times, I have to believe it is to clearly mark who is in the crowd and who is performing. Plus it puts the focus on THEM, their faces, instruments, and music, not on what each of the 27 members is wearing. I get that. Perhaps they’ll let me be number 28?

PS: The FULL song can be heard here. The video above chops off the last minute or so where the song slowly fades one instrument at a time and finishes on a chord so full of optimism that it is hard to believe it is still a Nirvana song. I love it!

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Click here for more info on The Polyphonic Spree – Wait – “Lithium”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

The Polyphonic Spree - Wait

The Watson Twins – “Just Like Heaven” (2008)

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I am sure my pick this morning is entirely because of yesterday’s bonus song, the original version by “The Cure”.

An old friend of mine sent me this song last year because it reminded her of me. This cover has a sort of dream like quality, like an old memory of good times long past. Still, like the original, it is a song of great joy, but like the memory of it. It is similar yet very different from the original version. Usually I don’t like covers but I think this one has merit, and The Watson Twins really make it their own.

PS: Obviously this song was featured on Private Practice, but I heard it last summer, so I’m going to count myself as ahead of the ball on this one.

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Click here for more info on The Watson Twins – Fire Songs – “Just Like Heaven”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

The Watson Twins - Fire Songs

Iron & Wine – “Such Great Heights” (2004)

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If you have not seen the movie “Garden State” yet, then why are you reading this. Quick! Download it! Rent it! Drive to the nearest video store if you must and watch it! Watch it now! But wait… I must not build up your expectations too much. So expect nothing. An infinite abyss perhaps. Just watch and enjoy. It is definitely in my top 10 favorite movies.

This bonus song of the day, featured in the movie, is a cover of The Postal Service’s original. The lyrics are beautiful and in many ways I think Iron & Wine may have improved upon the original. Although, in many ways it is an entirely different song. Both are worth your ears, but this one holds a special place in my heart.

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Click here for more info on Iron & Wine – “Such Great Heights”.

Click here for more info on the movie “Garden State”.

The MP3 may be purchased here:

Garden State - Soundtrack