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Overheard at Lem's:

Can Of Cheese for Hunter said...

It is an old song. it's raunchy - but tame, with today's debased standards.

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Chrissie Hynde claims that she wrote this song for/and about a lonely fan, but I think she's fibbing; she wrote this for Ray Davies of The Kinks. Whatever, it's beautiful song and I'm glad that she gets credit for songwriting. I never saw the original Pretenders before half of them died, but I did see the second incarnation, The Pretenders, and the treat was that she was playing her hometown of Akron, Ohio. Some co-workers and I drove over from Cleveland to see them in 1984. To me, the song is about letting go of a special someone you can't have today, but maybe tomorrow or someday. 

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Added: The electric version with the original band members from the good old MTV days:

 

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Overheard at Lem's:

Blogger Amartel said...

I do love the 70s, when men could wear tiny sequined matador jackets, or whatever that is, and still be men.

Remember when Robert Plant wore blouses?

The video is great of example of how tightly drummer Bonzo and guitarist Page fed off each other. Some have said that was the key to the Zeppelin sound. 

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Overheard at Lem's: 

Can Of Cheese for Hunter said...Definitely an animal face- I see a kitty.

The kitty is obvious in that Santana debut album -- but can you see others?

The story behind the cover art. 

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 Overheard at Lem's: 

...the chemical composition of wood, the many roles that trees and wood play in our lives,.. Link

Xylenes were in the air no doubt during that bake-off. And you probably caramelized all the xylose in that sap. Then there's xylophones:

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Added: Can of Queso links to a new Femmes song in the comments:

Cool!

Also, a concert poster from the 90's in Italy

: 

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The aria works for me on several levels:

It's Mozart -- who doesn't like Mozart?

The Italian libretto uses the 2nd person plural: voi che sapete...(ye who know). This looks like the second person singular (formal) in French: vous qui savez (you, sir, who know): French uses its second person plural vous form to address single people formally, while Italian reserves that pronoun -- voi = vous-- for addressing more than one person (second person plural). Italians use their third person (pronouns Lei and Lui) and corresponding verbs to address someone formally. 

It seems that every European language -- whether derived from Latin or not -- chose a particular way to address strangers but especially royalty. The Germans took over their third person plural for this purpose: Wissen Sie (literally "They who know" is used to address one person; Greeks, like the French, use their second person plural; We, like the Italians use our third person singular verb form which you can see in vestigial English: "Does his majesty wish" (third person, singular). Anything but the familiar tu, du, thou's to address royals. If you think this is confusing, try holding all these in your head when playing polyglot.

The word nozze in Italian is intriguing. Where does it come from? The closest English cognate is nuptials. 

Back to the aria itself. I should see "The Marriage of Figaro" before I die. I am a perfect candidate for enjoying opera, especially Italian. I have a good working knowledge of the language. Back when when I first studied it as my first foreign language at UW Madison, it was just me and a bunch of female music students in that class. Good times! I was just a local bumpkin -- not even matriculated -- trying to show off for those young women. That worked out well. But I always thought opera too highbrow for the likes of me. My sad loss. 

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 Overheard at Lem's:

My cousin recently visited our family plot in Kentucky and noted the same sort of thing - first, many, many children, many of whom never reached their majority, and kind an odd sense of family and communion with those who have gone before. 

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 @Mr. Gone: Here's your Weather Report

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 Don McLean came up in recent threads. Here is my second favorite work of his:

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Lyrics after the jump. Pretty edgy for Van Morrison

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Link in case the video doesn't load

Lyrics:

New York's alright, 

New York's alright,

New York's alright,

if you like saxophones! 

New York's alright if you wanna be pushed in front of the subway!

New York's alright if you like tuberculosis!

New York's alright if you like art and jazz!

New York's alright if you're a homosexual! 

New York's alright, 

New York's alright,

New York's alright,

if you like saxophones! 

New York's alright if you like drunks in your doorway!

New York's alright if you wanna freeze to death!

New York's alright if you wanna get mugged or murdered!

New York's alright if you like saxophones! 

New York's alright,

New York's alright,

New York's alright, 

if you like saxophones!