Just Giblets

This is a silly challenge to end the meme with. In reality, my favorite song is my favorite song, and while it does change over time, it certainly doesn’t change in a year’s time. So last year, my favorite song was Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, just like it is this year. That said, I did have a “favorite new song” last year… a discovery that made me really excited. An amazing song with an incredible video by an artist I had never heard of that just blew me away. So that’s the song I’ve selected for this Day 30 challenge. (And come back tomorrow, because I’ve got a little added extra in store for this meme).

The artist is billed as Fever Ray, which is actually the solo project for Swedish singer/songwriter Karin Dreijer Andersson. Karin first gained acclaim as one half of the electronic duo, The Knife, for which she sang lead vocals. I can’t remember how I discovered the video for Fever Ray’s second single off her debut album. The song is called When I Grow Up, and the video exemplifies the theatrical nature of Karin’s performances. It’s creepy, it’s primal, it mystical, it’s clever and I do hope you’ll take a look. I still enjoy watching this video every time I think about it.

I had my own rule for this meme, that I would only include songs for which I could post videos from YouTube. I am now breaking this rule for day 28, a song that makes me feel guilty. There’s really only one song that makes me feel guilty, and by guilty, I don’t mean guilty pleasures, because those don’t really make me feel guilty. During the break-up of my previous serious relationship, I felt plenty guilty, and I have a distinct memory of driving in my car, listening to Emm Gryner’s Science Fair album, and this song in particular, and bawling my eyes out. The song as a whole isn’t applicable to that situation, but in general it is, and some of the lines just pierced my heart. The song is called Revenge, and it’s not available on YouTube so click the link below which will bring you to Yahoo Music where you can listen to this heartbreakingly lovely song. I said Tori Amos’ Tear in Your Hand was lyrically spot on about what you feel when you’re going through a breakup, and so it this one.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/emm-gryner/tracks/revenge–8743615

I was in a band in the early 80s, so there are actually a lot of songs I can play on the bass guitar, and a few I can play on the piano/keyboard. When we first started out our band, Psyclone by name, played a lot of covers. We played songs by Pat Benatar, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, the Pretenders, Split Enz, Motorhead, Donnie Iris, Joe Jackson, Blondie… and lots more. What’s that? Motorhead? Oh yeah, we did a rockin’ rendition of The Chase is Better Than the Catch. I got to sing lead on Donnie Iris’ Ah, Leah, which was a lot of fun to perform. After the band broke up, I kept playing a little, learning songs by some of my favorite artists, but I didn’t have access to a keyboard for many years until just recently.

One song I had learned back in the early 80s, mainly because it was propelled by a great piano part, has stuck with me to this day. I still can play this song pretty much in its entirety by memory, although I do have the music and I recently pulled it out and did a much better job. The song is by Heart, and it’s a bit of a rarity as it was one of the early songs that Nancy sang. It’s from the album Bebe le Strange, and it’s called Raised On You. I love songs that are powered by the piano, and this one is a lot of fun to play.

Oh, what the heck. Here’s a really bad video for Ah, Leah too. This is a really great song, and I really loved performing it. I couldn’t do the screams at the end though, so Donnie, the other guy singer in the band had to do that part.