Top 5 Music Obsessions featuring Echo And The Bunnyman
It’s Friday Eve, or Friday Junior, or just plain old Thursday. Whatever your preference may be it is nearing the end of the week, and I for one am ready for the weekend to arrive. All the Music on Today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions were Songs that accompanied me on my morning commute, either from the Spotify Discover Weekly Playlist, or from Songs that jumped into my head and I just had to hear. Oh, and one was in a dream I had last night.
Music Obsessions. They come to me in all kinds of ways.
The first Song today is the Song from my dream last night. “Silver” by Echo And The Bunnymen crept into my subconscious and was part of a dreamscape Soundtrack of mine. I remember the Song playing. I remember a dark club that looked and felt like clubs I’d gone to in the late 80’s/early 90’s, in Hollywood. It was dark. I couldn’t quite see who I was there with, but he grabbed hold of my hand and led me across the dance floor, and out onto a patio that overlooked the city. The Song and the city lights, and a feeling of being high, or inebriated, made it all feel a bit magical. There were other people on that patio, but all the faces were blurry, and I could never quite make out the face of the man who was holding my hand.
One of my all-time Favorite Duets is up next. “Judy Staring at the Sun” by Catherine Wheel and Tanya Donelly. This Song is its own kind of dreamy magic. I’ve put this Track on so many Mixes and Playlists.
Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros’ “Johnny Appleseed” is Song 3. I really need to explore this Album more. It was one of the Tracks on the Spotify Discover Weekly Playlist and I’m loving it. I’ve been so into The Clash lately, and this just makes me more into all of it. I’ve always loved “Ramshackle Day Parade” (the Song that triggered my Desert Cult Mystery novel I’m working on), but I’d not listened to much else. I’m loving this Track a lot, too.
A Deep Cut from The Sundays Reading Writing and Arithmetic Album is up next. I had this Album on cassette in 1990 and played it Obsessively in my car. “My Finest Hour” has always been one of my Favorites from the Album. Today, listening to it, it makes me miss the 90’s.
Last, but not least, is a new discovery Song, thanks again to Spotify’s Discover Weekly Playlist. Nada Surf is a Band I only know a few Songs from. That said, it’s true that any Song I’ve come across of theirs I’ve liked. “Blonde On Blonde” (the name of a Bob Dylan Album) is no exception. This may be my Favorite of the Nada Surf Songs I’ve heard. So far.
Top 5 Music Obsessions of the Day – April 26, 2018
1. “Silver” by Echo And The Bunnymen
2. “Judy Staring At the Sun” by Catherine Wheel, featuring Tanya Donelly
3. “Johnny Appleseed” by Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros
4. “My Finest Hour” by The Sundays
5. “Blonde On Blonde” by Nada Surf
How do you like today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions? Which Track was your Favorite? We’d love to hear who you are Obsessing over this week.
Thank you to Echo And The Bunnymen, Catherine Wheel and Tanya Donelly, Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros, The Sundays and Nada Surf for being part of Today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions. All your Songs are Magic to me today.
Top 5 Music Obsessions – The Week of 4/23/18
“Violet” by Hole
“Violet” is my Favorite Hole Song. It is also one of my all-time Favorite Songs. It was written by Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson, in 1991, and performed live during Hole’s 1991-1992 early tours. It then became Track 1 on Hole’s second Studio Album, Live Through This, which came out in 1994.
Later, it was Released as Hole’s seventh Single, third from Live Through This. “Violet”, as a Single, was Released in January 1995. This was after the June 1994 death of bandmate Kristen Pfaff. (from Wikipedia)
Courtney Love may be polarizing, she may be controversial, and sometimes she may do things that are unlikable, but many of us are all that, as well, just without the notice of the world. No matter what, I have a forever and always place in my heart for Courtney, and a shared sort of kinship with her. Her daughter and my oldest are the same age, and we also both lost our husbands to addiction and suicide, something that is not so easy to live through.
Her music with Hole, though, helped me live through it, and a lot more. Hole songs still help me live. In many ways, “Violet” especially.
“Violet” by Hole
from the Album, Live Through This (1994)
“You should learn when to go.
You should learn how to say no.”
Courtney Love has often said that “Violet” is about her 1990 relationship with Billy Corgan, the frontman of Smashing Pumpkins.
“Violet” peaked at #29 on the Billboard‘s Modern Rock Tracks after the Album’s Release in 1994, and is considered one of Hole’s most well-known and critically recognized Songs. (from Wikipedia)
The Cover Artwork (see above) for “Violet” features a Victorian “mourning portrait” of a deceased young girl taken from the historical archives of Stanley B. Burns.
“Violet” has inspired so much writing of mine. A character from my novel-in-process idolizes Courtney and Hole. I’ve written at least a dozen poems listening to this Song, as well. Here’s one:
Flush
Down in the bottom of last week’s laundry
still tangled and mismatched
I found half a ticket stub from 1995
Faded, but I could still make out the date,
though not the band.
I know it was yours, though.
I know it was some kind of sign.
I want to give you a festival of music,
and lights.
Shake out the sky like an old beach blanket,
letting the stars just flake and fly away.
We could grab our grade school watercolors,
dug out of the bottom of purple backpacks,
and start again,
with this world.
Let’s start again with the sky.
I slip on a black lace top,
underneath.
We all have secrets.
We all have scars.
I bet you still smoke that same old brand.
Still smell of rosemary and cheap aftershave,
tobacco and sweat.
I’ll have a beer please,
hold the ashtray,
but not the coins for the jukebox.
Remember being wired out of our minds,
you and I?
Climbing up train tunnels,
trading rings.
This one could be a wedding band.
Ours.
Yours.
As you smeared eyeliner across your face.
“So pretty, Miss Kitty.
So pretty.
Yeah, I’m sure those scratches will heal.”
I keep finding remnants.
Paper thin memories while the clock ticks away.
I know I write too much of love,
of intimated desperation.
As if this heart is the only thing worth bleeding into words.
Wait.
Is that his old jacket?
Your red dress?
My left shoe?
I want to throw it all into some winding river,
in the South,
someplace I’ve never been.
Dunk my head in.
Baptize me clean.
Sew on a pair of hand-me-down wings.
Lose myself at the crossroads of Jazz Musicians,
and Frontwomen.
Or maybe just do nothing.
Be nothing.
Nothing at all.
“When they get what they want,
they never want it again.”
