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MAD - Artist - Round 4 - #14's have been posted (15 Viewers)

#27. Bootsy Collins - "Jam Fan"

Another Bootsy record that could about 9 different things. As usual with many of his songs, there are then-current pop culture references (Steve Martin, among others) and quadruple entendres galore. Collins used to say he was writing songs for micro-boppers (kids), but I think he was just saying that to get his records on the radio because the filth is miles deep. Anyway, it's one of his patented funk jams. There's so much silly stuff going on in his songs (sound effects, his voice) that the bedrock of them - the funk itself - sometimes gets overlooked. He and the band are cooking here.

Up next, Funkadelic's most overt nod to their gospel influences.

I had this album in college and used to play it all the time. This did not endear me to my roommates who couldn't stand it and ended up hiding the record in other album jackets.
:laugh:
 
Police & Thieves, the 2nd song from The Clash album, is notable for two things:
1. @KarmaPolice gets a little closer to ticking off his reggae box (phrasing?) because
2. this is a cover of what was originally a reggae song! I had no idea when putting the list together, but that's what researching for these posts is all about, isn't it?

Has there been a Clash song yet with Mick Jones on lead vocals? I don't believe so.
 
#27 JOURNEY - OF A LIFETIME


No, I didn't include any straight instrumentals, but a few of these earlier tracks are basically instrumentals. Obviously there a are many more songs to come, but this album opener from the debut was where I started and it was a major reason I kept going. I had just heard hits and 1/2 of the Escape album before starting my research. The early Journey sound hooked me right away. Here I included a version from Youtube from a show in Japan from 1980. If anybody is a fan, this is another show I recommend a lot that I found on Youtube. The song sounds great live, Rolie's shirt is top notch, and I love the blending of the pre and post Perry tunes, which you don't get after this since Rolie left shortly after. I love having Of a Lifetime and the previous bonus linked Kohoutek back to back in this show.

Also, I know I am hyping up the pre-Perry years a bit as shtick, but remember my love is the Rolie era of Journey as a whole. I looked at the top 25, and there are only 6 of the 25 from the first 3 albums. These 3 albums were what really opened my ears, but we have yet to get to the albums I REALLY love. :popcorn:
 
#27: LORD HURON - THE YAWNING GRAVE


I tried to warn you when you were a child
I told you not to get lost in the wild
I sent omens and all kinds of signs

I taught you melodies, poems, and rhymes


I love the atmosphere of this one. It's a little lower in the playlist because I think it plays better in context of an full album listen, I have trouble uncoupling it from the song it segues into, and it sounds a bit off to me. Hope people are getting some enjoyment out of the songs still. Next up will be one of the newer tracks on the playlist .
 
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There's a George Clinton biopic currently in development. I'm sure Eddie Murphy's name being attached to it helped with backing but he's kind of old to play prime-era Clinton.

Oh, this has delicious train-wreck written all over it. I have no doubt Murphy can mimic Clinton. But who's playing Bootsy? Himself with de-aging tech? Jonathan Majors could probably do it, but he's blacklisted these days.
 
#27. Bootsy Collins - "Jam Fan"

Another Bootsy record that could about 9 different things. As usual with many of his songs, there are then-current pop culture references (Steve Martin, among others) and quadruple entendres galore. Collins used to say he was writing songs for micro-boppers (kids), but I think he was just saying that to get his records on the radio because the filth is miles deep. Anyway, it's one of his patented funk jams. There's so much silly stuff going on in his songs (sound effects, his voice) that the bedrock of them - the funk itself - sometimes gets overlooked. He and the band are cooking here.

Up next, Funkadelic's most overt nod to their gospel influences.

I had this album in college and used to play it all the time. This did not endear me to my roommates who couldn't stand it and ended up hiding the record in other album jackets.
Try popping this 8-track in riding around with a bunch of Van Halen fans. I had one friend who looked just like Spicoli make me drop him off on the side of the road 15 miles from his house because he couldn't stand it :lol: The rest hung out with that night me because I had a car and money for beer, but they were not happy.
 
Marr #27 (Smiths #9) - The Smiths - "Handsome Devil" (1983)

"Handsome Devil" was one of the earliest Marr-Morrissey compositions; it repurposed a riff that 13-year old Johnny made up for his first band the Paris Valentinos. Morrissey's sexually ambiguous lyrics were controversial at the time and gave the new band some notoriety that helped launch their career. Mozza always denied the song was about noncing but that didn't stop it from it being banned briefly. Marr found this all endlessly amusing; glam was his earliest musical influence so he was accustomed to artists flaunting their sexuality. By all appearances, Johnny has had a conventional and boring love life by rock star standards. He and wife Angie have been together since secondary school and got married in 1985 at a Unitarian church not far from my house. The future Mrs. Eephus and I saw the newlywed play a show with the Smiths the following night in Oakland.

This version of the song was recorded for John Peel's BBC radio program. I'd always assumed Peel sessions were similar to today's in-studio radio concerts like the Tiny Desk shows. But due to musicians union requirements, the BBC was prohibited from exclusively playing records over the air. Peel sessions and others like them provided additional content for them to play on the radio without violating the terms of the union agreement. This was only the second time the Smiths stepped foot in a recording studio, they'd cut another version of this song for their first session featuring a saxophone but that one has never seen the light of day. There was talk about recording it again for their album but they used the Peel show version instead.

This song and others like it are reminders of how hard the band could rock. The guitar riff recycled from the Valentinos propels the song with the rhythm section racing to keep up and Mozza moaning about mammaries and a boy in the bush.

 
Oh, this has delicious train-wreck written all over it. I have no doubt Murphy can mimic Clinton. But who's playing Bootsy? Himself with de-aging tech? Jonathan Majors could probably do it, but he's blacklisted these days.

The Dolemite Is My Name movie with Murphy was pretty good a few years back although I thought there was more Eddie than Rudy Ray in his performance.

Clinton isn't so well known to constrain an actor in their performance. He's known musically of course and for his costumes to a lesser extent but I don't think I've ever seen interview footage of him from the 70s. I know what he sounds like today but a lot has happened in George's head over the past fifty years.
 
Just figured out that The Walkmen remind me of Palma Violets. Not sure who came out first, or if they were around about the same time.
 
Oh, this has delicious train-wreck written all over it. I have no doubt Murphy can mimic Clinton. But who's playing Bootsy? Himself with de-aging tech? Jonathan Majors could probably do it, but he's blacklisted these days.

The Dolemite Is My Name movie with Murphy was pretty good a few years back although I thought there was more Eddie than Rudy Ray in his performance.

Clinton isn't so well known to constrain an actor in their performance. He's known musically of course and for his costumes to a lesser extent but I don't think I've ever seen interview footage of him from the 70s. I know what he sounds like today but a lot has happened in George's head over the past fifty years.
Good point. I will say that I met him back then and he was pretty much the way you see him in more recent interviews, though a little livelier (could've been the coke or just being younger).

I was backstage at two PF shows. One was 1979 and the other one was a year or two later. I get most of the events confused these days as to what I witnessed at which show. A friend of mine was a roadie/engineer for them when they were in town and was in a local spinoff band. He knew I liked the band and got me backstage.

I know it was the first one I attended when I talked to Clinton. I was fan-boying out, trying to tell him how everything clicked once I played the songs on one of their albums in a certain order. He laughed and said something like "Boy, it's just a record" :lol:

At one of them, I had smoked some angel dust that hit me wrong and must have looked in ungood shape. Bootsy talked me off of the ledge for what felt like 20 minutes. It was probably like 30 seconds, but he helped me get back right. I don't even recall if he actually played on stage that night - he was a headliner in his own right by then - but he was there. He had regular sunglasses on.

I......... um......"dated" one of the Parlets for about 30 minutes at one of them.

Sly Stone was supposed to be a surprise guest at the 2nd one and come out of the mothership. He was at a career nadir and I think George was trying to jump-start him. Anyway, I saw Sly slumped in a corner when he was supposed to be boarding the ship. I think Shider ended up taking his place, but maybe it was Clinton.

It amazed me how things could be both haphazard and precise during these concerts. There were like 30 performers and not all were on stage all of the time. The poor roadies trying to get props out at the right times had to be flustered. Clinton (& several others) had worked at Motown, and Bootsy had been in James Brown's band - so precision was built into them. But so were drugs. Looking back, it was easy to spot that this group was on its last legs in this format.

Speaking of the mothership - what they usually used to bring Clinton on stage and one of the most famous stage props in rock history - at some point, it disappeared. No one seemed to know who hocked it or where it ended up. When Gary Shider (the guy most people thought was George Clinton, and wore the diaper on stage) passed away, it was found in his back yard. I'm guessing he confiscated it because George owed him money, but he never tried to cash in on having it.

Shider lived about 10 minutes from my hometown, and I got to know him in his later years due to the previously-mentioned connections. He invited me to some family functions and came to some of mine. Great guy. I miss him.
 
Oh, this has delicious train-wreck written all over it. I have no doubt Murphy can mimic Clinton. But who's playing Bootsy? Himself with de-aging tech? Jonathan Majors could probably do it, but he's blacklisted these days.

The Dolemite Is My Name movie with Murphy was pretty good a few years back although I thought there was more Eddie than Rudy Ray in his performance.

Clinton isn't so well known to constrain an actor in their performance. He's known musically of course and for his costumes to a lesser extent but I don't think I've ever seen interview footage of him from the 70s. I know what he sounds like today but a lot has happened in George's head over the past fifty years.
Good point. I will say that I met him back then and he was pretty much the way you see him in more recent interviews, though a little livelier (could've been the coke or just being younger).

I was backstage at two PF shows. One was 1979 and the other one was a year or two later. I get most of the events confused these days as to what I witnessed at which show. A friend of mine was a roadie/engineer for them when they were in town and was in a local spinoff band. He knew I liked the band and got me backstage.

I know it was the first one I attended when I talked to Clinton. I was fan-boying out, trying to tell him how everything clicked once I played the songs on one of their albums in a certain order. He laughed and said something like "Boy, it's just a record" :lol:

At one of them, I had smoked some angel dust that hit me wrong and must have looked in ungood shape. Bootsy talked me off of the ledge for what felt like 20 minutes. It was probably like 30 seconds, but he helped me get back right. I don't even recall if he actually played on stage that night - he was a headliner in his own right by then - but he was there. He had regular sunglasses on.

I......... um......"dated" one of the Parlets for about 30 minutes at one of them.

Sly Stone was supposed to be a surprise guest at the 2nd one and come out of the mothership. He was at a career nadir and I think George was trying to jump-start him. Anyway, I saw Sly slumped in a corner when he was supposed to be boarding the ship. I think Shider ended up taking his place, but maybe it was Clinton.

It amazed me how things could be both haphazard and precise during these concerts. There were like 30 performers and not all were on stage all of the time. The poor roadies trying to get props out at the right times had to be flustered. Clinton (& several others) had worked at Motown, and Bootsy had been in James Brown's band - so precision was built into them. But so were drugs. Looking back, it was easy to spot that this group was on its last legs in this format.

Speaking of the mothership - what they usually used to bring Clinton on stage and one of the most famous stage props in rock history - at some point, it disappeared. No one seemed to know who hocked it or where it ended up. When Gary Shider (the guy most people thought was George Clinton, and wore the diaper on stage) passed away, it was found in his back yard. I'm guessing he confiscated it because George owed him money, but he never tried to cash in on having it.

Shider lived about 10 minutes from my hometown, and I got to know him in his later years due to the previously-mentioned connections. He invited me to some family functions and came to some of mine. Great guy. I miss him.
This is amazing.

It must blow a musician’s mind when fans start talking to them about things about their work that they never intended, like your whole “if you play the songs in this order…” thing.
 
Oh, this has delicious train-wreck written all over it. I have no doubt Murphy can mimic Clinton. But who's playing Bootsy? Himself with de-aging tech? Jonathan Majors could probably do it, but he's blacklisted these days.

The Dolemite Is My Name movie with Murphy was pretty good a few years back although I thought there was more Eddie than Rudy Ray in his performance.

Clinton isn't so well known to constrain an actor in their performance. He's known musically of course and for his costumes to a lesser extent but I don't think I've ever seen interview footage of him from the 70s. I know what he sounds like today but a lot has happened in George's head over the past fifty years.
Good point. I will say that I met him back then and he was pretty much the way you see him in more recent interviews, though a little livelier (could've been the coke or just being younger).

I was backstage at two PF shows. One was 1979 and the other one was a year or two later. I get most of the events confused these days as to what I witnessed at which show. A friend of mine was a roadie/engineer for them when they were in town and was in a local spinoff band. He knew I liked the band and got me backstage.

I know it was the first one I attended when I talked to Clinton. I was fan-boying out, trying to tell him how everything clicked once I played the songs on one of their albums in a certain order. He laughed and said something like "Boy, it's just a record" :lol:

At one of them, I had smoked some angel dust that hit me wrong and must have looked in ungood shape. Bootsy talked me off of the ledge for what felt like 20 minutes. It was probably like 30 seconds, but he helped me get back right. I don't even recall if he actually played on stage that night - he was a headliner in his own right by then - but he was there. He had regular sunglasses on.

I......... um......"dated" one of the Parlets for about 30 minutes at one of them.

Sly Stone was supposed to be a surprise guest at the 2nd one and come out of the mothership. He was at a career nadir and I think George was trying to jump-start him. Anyway, I saw Sly slumped in a corner when he was supposed to be boarding the ship. I think Shider ended up taking his place, but maybe it was Clinton.

It amazed me how things could be both haphazard and precise during these concerts. There were like 30 performers and not all were on stage all of the time. The poor roadies trying to get props out at the right times had to be flustered. Clinton (& several others) had worked at Motown, and Bootsy had been in James Brown's band - so precision was built into them. But so were drugs. Looking back, it was easy to spot that this group was on its last legs in this format.

Speaking of the mothership - what they usually used to bring Clinton on stage and one of the most famous stage props in rock history - at some point, it disappeared. No one seemed to know who hocked it or where it ended up. When Gary Shider (the guy most people thought was George Clinton, and wore the diaper on stage) passed away, it was found in his back yard. I'm guessing he confiscated it because George owed him money, but he never tried to cash in on having it.

Shider lived about 10 minutes from my hometown, and I got to know him in his later years due to the previously-mentioned connections. He invited me to some family functions and came to some of mine. Great guy. I miss him.
This is amazing.

It must blow a musician’s mind when fans start talking to them about things about their work that they never intended, like your whole “if you play the songs in this order…” thing.
I can't even imagine what Dylan went through when there were whole college courses trying to break down his music (& he cared even less than Clinton about what people thought).

I think legends remember their memories. Does that make sense? I'd bet my house Paul McCartney doesn't ACTUALLY recall cutting "She Loves You" or that Stevie Wonder remembers laying down "Superstition". They've told those stories so many times, man.
 
I ended up listening to the #27s in a split session. This isn’t unusual given my work schedule, though I seemed to enjoy the second half of the randomness more. Could be just tiredness, though *shrug*. Regardless, here were the top portion of things for me.

Selected (and shuffled) Favorites:
Fading In and Out - Ringo Starr
Hole In My Heart - The Airborne Toxic Event
Of a Lifetime - Journey
Pop Song 89 - REM
Saving All My Love For You - Whitney Houston
Rodeo Boy - Fred Eaglesmith
The Devil’s Back - The Pretty Reckless
Police & Thieves - The Clash
Last Train Home - Ryan Star

Shuffle Adventures:
This was a bit unexpected for me. Oh, Radiohead’s “2+2=5(“The Lukewarm”)” is definitely familiar territory. But then it flowed so well into Lindsey Stirling’s “Eye of the Untold Her” that I had to rewind a bit. Then again so far the Stirling playlist has been a pleasant surprise, hopefully now enough to ensure I get her name right no matter how much my brain wants ‘LindsAy StErling’.
 
This was my favorite playlist so far. It was hard to pare down the new songs to 5.

This time around, I don’t know many artists and of the ones I do know and like I’m not deep into their catalogues (My Morning Jacket, The Clash, Eurythmics, Lord Huron).

There’s artists this round that I have no idea even existed.
 
27. Fading In and Out from Choose Love (2005)

Previously ranked #28 - prior write-up below

This song is from Ringo’s 14th studio album, Choose Love, released in 2005. We’re going to be skipping around a bit on albums from all the guys, which isn’t ideal, but I’ll try to work the history in as best I can. Following several commercial failures, Ringo had some moderate success with his “comeback” albums Vertical Man and Ringo Rama, and here he once again partnered with Mark Hudson and a couple of moderate or major stars on a perfectly nice and friendly (though possibly unspectacular) record. This one, however, did not see any commercial success despite good reviews for a Ringo album, or as one review put it, not just a good Ringo record but a flat-out good record.

Of the lesser-known Ringos, this is a satisfying album, as usual featuring Ringo’s effortless good cheer and in this case a couple of strong-ish songs that just missed my countdown: “Give Me Back the Beat” (which I originally had slotted in this spot, so let me know if I made a mistake with my last-minute switcheroo) and “Satisfied”. One of the other most notable songs is his duet with Chrissie Hynde, “Don’t Hang Up,” which I might not favor only because I don’t dig her much. The song I did choose to feature is just a jovial little Ringo-ism, nothing that’s going to rock your world, but a nice toe-tapper with a good nature that showcases a lesser-known Ringo album that doesn’t deserve to be completely overlooked, so I'm giving it one slot here.
 
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Listened to the #27 playlist a couple times. Other than my own song:
  • Favorites already known to me:
    • None this round
  • Favorites new to me:
    • The Pretty Reckless - The Devil's Back -- 5 for 5 and running away with this countdown for me
    • Lindsey Stirling - Eye of the Untold Her
    • Our Lady Peace - Supersatellite
For my taste, this was the best playlist so far. I really enjoyed it.
 
The Pretty Reckless seem to be the star of MAD Artists Round 4 by a wide margin.

I’ve had heard the name before but didn’t know the music at all. I was semi-surprised by the sound - thought of them as much heavier - and there hasn’t been a clunker yet and most have been great.
 
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Kind of a slow week for MADs-adjacent new releases highlighted by a new album by The Cure, their first in 16 years.


There's also a re-release of Drive-By Truckers' 2016 album American Band with eight new live tracks


and remasters of Elliott Smith's From a Basement on the Hill and Queen's debut album


 
Not technically MADs adjacent but possibly of interest to cool and edgy dummies, there's a new six-disc reissue of Elvis Costello's King of America album. It includes a remaster plus demos and live recordings with his band featuring James Burton and Jerry Scheff.

Four discs of the material is available on Spotify but completists will have to shell out the bucks for physical media.

 
I'm glad people are enjoying my Pretty Reckless picks so far as my artists don't generally get a lot of love in these or other drafts. They do have some harder rocking tracks coming up but nothing that would be considered metal and imo,the vocals are always top notch.
I first discovered them during the never ending Genrepolloza draft while researching for the Riot Grrrl category and have been a fan ever since.
 

#27 - Robyn - Konichiwa B*tches​


Producer - Robyn - Klas Åhlund
Writer - Robyn - Klas Åhlund
Chart Positions - UK #98, Australia #67
Album - Robyn
Year - 2005
Collaborator History - Klas Åhlund is a founding member of Swedish electronic band the Teddybears. He has been behind the comeback Robyn album and the subsequent Body Talk trilogy. Even involved in the Honey album. He is her most successful collaborator

“As a songwriter and producer Åhlund has worked with artists like Katy Perry, Kesha, Britney Spears, Swedish House Mafia, Robyn, Iggy Pop, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Charli XCX, Ghost, Teddybears, Usher, Tove Lo, Axwell & Ingross, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, Alesso, Carly Rae Jepsen, Melody Club, Bo Kaspers Orkester”

Key Lyric -
You wanna rumble in my jungle?
I'll take you on
Stampede your rump-a
And send you home
You wanna rumble in space?
I put my laser on stun
And on the North Pole
I'll ice you, son

Notes - After the relatively poor showing of the My Truth and Don’t Stop the Music albums, Robyn was fed up with record company interference and took total creative control. To do so she had to create her own record label and did with Konichiwa Records. Where’s the name came from?

Konichiwa Bitches" originates from when Robyn and Klas Åhlund watched Chappelle's Show with Dave Chappelle on Comedy Central. He performed a sketch in which the world's different races tried to decide what famous people belonged to which race. Robyn said, "In the end this member of the group Wu-Tang Clan comes up and they're supposed to decide if he's Asian or black and at the end the Asians get him. He goes up on stage and says 'Koni-chi-WAA Bitches', and it's like the most funny thing I know. It's funny and fiesty [sic] and cool." She chose to name a song after that, and call her own label Konichiwa Records. When writing the song, Robyn recalled that she and Åhlund "were calling each other, hitting each other off with new lines." She said, "It was almost like a competition for a while like who could be the craziest. And we would call each other like, listen to this one!"
This surprisingly was chosen as the lead single on the International release of the lp. Two years after it had been released in Sweden to massive success and acclaim. A UK #1 had been achieved in collaboration with Kleerup preceeding it. It was a statement to the effect of, I’m not Robyn the music industry puppet anymore.

Next up - We will see a few collaborators appear in the title a few times. This is the first of them. This song was released without Robyn on it and then as part of a remix package with her on it. It also led to the much better known collaboration later.
I flat out love this song.
 
Mötley CrüeJWBNew Tattoo

My list is dominated by 80's Crüe - this one is an attempt to get some other songs in. It's the title track from their 2000 album, which almost featured the whole original band, but Tommy Lee decided he had enough of the returned Vince Neil and left for awhile. It's an "ok" song (some of the ones I already posted are better), and it's sort of "Crüe goes country" (especially the really simple lyrics - they were never deep lyrically, but this one, like a lot of "older" bands, is fairly literal.)
 

#27 - Robyn - Konichiwa B*tches​


Producer - Robyn - Klas Åhlund
Writer - Robyn - Klas Åhlund
Chart Positions - UK #98, Australia #67
Album - Robyn
Year - 2005
Collaborator History - Klas Åhlund is a founding member of Swedish electronic band the Teddybears. He has been behind the comeback Robyn album and the subsequent Body Talk trilogy. Even involved in the Honey album. He is her most successful collaborator

“As a songwriter and producer Åhlund has worked with artists like Katy Perry, Kesha, Britney Spears, Swedish House Mafia, Robyn, Iggy Pop, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Charli XCX, Ghost, Teddybears, Usher, Tove Lo, Axwell & Ingross, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, Alesso, Carly Rae Jepsen, Melody Club, Bo Kaspers Orkester”

Key Lyric -
You wanna rumble in my jungle?
I'll take you on
Stampede your rump-a
And send you home
You wanna rumble in space?
I put my laser on stun
And on the North Pole
I'll ice you, son

Notes - After the relatively poor showing of the My Truth and Don’t Stop the Music albums, Robyn was fed up with record company interference and took total creative control. To do so she had to create her own record label and did with Konichiwa Records. Where’s the name came from?

Konichiwa Bitches" originates from when Robyn and Klas Åhlund watched Chappelle's Show with Dave Chappelle on Comedy Central. He performed a sketch in which the world's different races tried to decide what famous people belonged to which race. Robyn said, "In the end this member of the group Wu-Tang Clan comes up and they're supposed to decide if he's Asian or black and at the end the Asians get him. He goes up on stage and says 'Koni-chi-WAA Bitches', and it's like the most funny thing I know. It's funny and fiesty [sic] and cool." She chose to name a song after that, and call her own label Konichiwa Records. When writing the song, Robyn recalled that she and Åhlund "were calling each other, hitting each other off with new lines." She said, "It was almost like a competition for a while like who could be the craziest. And we would call each other like, listen to this one!"
This surprisingly was chosen as the lead single on the International release of the lp. Two years after it had been released in Sweden to massive success and acclaim. A UK #1 had been achieved in collaboration with Kleerup preceeding it. It was a statement to the effect of, I’m not Robyn the music industry puppet anymore.

Next up - We will see a few collaborators appear in the title a few times. This is the first of them. This song was released without Robyn on it and then as part of a remix package with her on it. It also led to the much better known collaboration later.
I flat out love this song.
Awesome. You are in for a treat then.
Robyn has 2 type of somgs she excels at
Attitude and humor, like here.
Broken hearted.

We have some dance shiit to get through, as a lot of her collaborations go down this path, but hang in there.
 

#27 - Robyn - Konichiwa B*tches​


Producer - Robyn - Klas Åhlund
Writer - Robyn - Klas Åhlund
Chart Positions - UK #98, Australia #67
Album - Robyn
Year - 2005
Collaborator History - Klas Åhlund is a founding member of Swedish electronic band the Teddybears. He has been behind the comeback Robyn album and the subsequent Body Talk trilogy. Even involved in the Honey album. He is her most successful collaborator

“As a songwriter and producer Åhlund has worked with artists like Katy Perry, Kesha, Britney Spears, Swedish House Mafia, Robyn, Iggy Pop, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Charli XCX, Ghost, Teddybears, Usher, Tove Lo, Axwell & Ingross, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, Alesso, Carly Rae Jepsen, Melody Club, Bo Kaspers Orkester”

Key Lyric -
You wanna rumble in my jungle?
I'll take you on
Stampede your rump-a
And send you home
You wanna rumble in space?
I put my laser on stun
And on the North Pole
I'll ice you, son

Notes - After the relatively poor showing of the My Truth and Don’t Stop the Music albums, Robyn was fed up with record company interference and took total creative control. To do so she had to create her own record label and did with Konichiwa Records. Where’s the name came from?

Konichiwa Bitches" originates from when Robyn and Klas Åhlund watched Chappelle's Show with Dave Chappelle on Comedy Central. He performed a sketch in which the world's different races tried to decide what famous people belonged to which race. Robyn said, "In the end this member of the group Wu-Tang Clan comes up and they're supposed to decide if he's Asian or black and at the end the Asians get him. He goes up on stage and says 'Koni-chi-WAA Bitches', and it's like the most funny thing I know. It's funny and fiesty [sic] and cool." She chose to name a song after that, and call her own label Konichiwa Records. When writing the song, Robyn recalled that she and Åhlund "were calling each other, hitting each other off with new lines." She said, "It was almost like a competition for a while like who could be the craziest. And we would call each other like, listen to this one!"
This surprisingly was chosen as the lead single on the International release of the lp. Two years after it had been released in Sweden to massive success and acclaim. A UK #1 had been achieved in collaboration with Kleerup preceeding it. It was a statement to the effect of, I’m not Robyn the music industry puppet anymore.

Next up - We will see a few collaborators appear in the title a few times. This is the first of them. This song was released without Robyn on it and then as part of a remix package with her on it. It also led to the much better known collaboration later.
I flat out love this song.
Me, too. I love the muffled part in the trunk.
 

I nerded out and compared the original vinyl mix, the 2011 remaster and the new version of "Keep Yourself Alive" because I've probably listened to the song 100 times over the decades and never once thought that it was anything other than a great sounding record.

The new remaster sounds different in subtle ways that are hard to describe. I guess crispy is as good a single word as anything I could come up with. There's more space between the instruments and everything has greater clarity. Taylor's drum kit sounds huge during his brief solo at the 2:15 mark where they weren't as wide in previous versions The new version sounds "better" because it eliminates an audible hiss from the previous remaster but it's definitely a bigger departure from the original than the 2011 release.

Of course if you hadn't told me it was a remaster I probably wouldn't have noticed.
 
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Thoughts on the #27s of the artists that I know well:

Yes -- "Survival" was the one that grabbed me the first time I listened to the debut album many years ago. Yo Mama's description of '60s vocals with very futuristic-for-the-time instrumentation is spot on.

Tweedy/Wilco -- I have not heard the Cruel Country album, but "Falling Apart (Right Now)" feels familiar. I don't know if it's because I heard it on the radio once or because it could pass for something on A.M., Being There or one of the Uncle Tupelo records. It's Tweedy in his most comfortable and confident mode.

My Morning Jacket -- During the extensive tour for the Evil Urges album, I remember some friends saying that when they opened with the title track, it was going to be an average show, but when they opened with something else, it was going to be a special night. That's not quite fair to what's a pretty solid song, but I do feel it meets the baseline of "good MMJ song" and doesn't exceed it to any great degree. I doubt it would make my top 31, whereas "I'm Amazed", seen earlier from the same album, would.

P-Funk -- I don't know the Bootsy solo stuff very well, but "Jam Fan (Hot)" is very much of a piece sonically with peak 1976-78 Parliament records and Funkadelic's One Nation Under a Groove.

Bee Gees -- One of their best '60s tunes. The warbly, dramatic vocal pulled off by Robin here would be cringe in the hands of some of their contemporaries, but Robin nails it. This song is used to great effect at the end of the pilot episode of Lucky Hank.
 
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I nerded out and compared the original vinyl mix, the 2011 remaster and the new version of "Keep Yourself Alive" because I've probably listened to the song 100 times over the decades and never once thought that it was anything other than a great sounding record.

The new remaster sounds different in subtle ways that are hard to describe. I guess crispy is as good a single word as anything I could come up with. There's more space between the instruments and everything has greater clarity. Taylor's drum kit sounds huge during his brief solo at the 2:15 mark where they weren't as wide in previous versions The new version sounds "better" because it eliminates an audible hiss from the previous remaster but it's definitely a bigger departure from the original than the 2011 release.

Of course if you hadn't told me it was a remaster I probably wouldn't have noticed.
I'll take your word for it. My ears are way too shot to pick up on such differences.
 

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