Category Archives: Music

My iPod #89: The Who – Bell Boy

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Nice. A song by “The Who” that’s not on “Who’s Next” for me to talk about.

“Quadrophenia” was the first Who album I downloaded in 2010. It was that year when I randomly started to listen to them when I started watching videos on YouTube.

I had briefly heard of it before when I was 13, when a member on YouTube – ‘sxewill2’ I think was the name of the channel – uploaded the album in sepearate parts. I can remember listening to “The Real Me” for a few seconds, but at that time I was a naive and foolish boy and went onto a different video. That person’s account was later terminated from the website later that year.

“Quadrophenia” is another concept album written by Pete Townshend. The story of the album follows the protagonist “Jimmy”, a Mod with multiple personality disorder. It’s not just two personalities, or three, but four, with each one representing the personality of one member of “The Who”. Now you see where the “Quad” comes in the album title.

In regards to the story, “Bell Boy” comes in after Jimmy goes to Brighton to remember the good old fights between the Mods and Rockers and sees a notable Mod that he looked up to back in the day. However, this Mod now works as a… you might have a guessed, a bell boy, and Jimmy is pissed off and dissappointed. What does he do next? You have to listen to the album.

Townshend also incoporates all these musical ‘leitmotifs’ which occur at different points during the album, depicting the clashes between the personalities. “Bell Boy” is Keith’s theme, noted for being ‘a bloody lunatic’ in the liner notes of the album. “Bell Boy” was the first song I really got into when I listened to the album for the first time. I think the fact that it contained lead vocals by Keith himself played a large part, but also because for me, it was the easiest one to memorise and it’s just got this thumping beat to it that doesn’t quit. Especially in the verses and the instrumental breaks.

That’s about it, guys. Hope you liked the post. Give me feedback, tell me whether you like the song, whether you like the blog or not. Anything really.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #88: The Beatles – Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

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John Lennon bought a poster one day in 1967, from an antiques shop whilst filming the video for “Strawberry Fields Forever” with the other three guys. This is a picture of the poster. This is a picture of John standing next to the poster which is the real deal and not edited by Photoshop at all. It actually isn’t.

To put it simply, everything in the song is from the poster. The horse’s name wasn’t Henry though. It was actually “Zanthus”. I don’t think “Zanthus the horse dances the waltz” would have been as good of a lyric though. Mind you, if they had used that lyric it wouldn’t have been banned on the BBC for supposed “drug references”. Silly BBC.

If you own the vinyl version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, this song closes the first side of the album. To emphasise the circus theme of the song, their renowned producer George Martin asked the engineer to chop up recordings of various faiground organs and calliope music, throw them in the air and reassemble them at random. These are the noises used for the instrumental break, and also during the outro of the song. It took five days for the band to make this, and is regarded to be one of the more complex songs on the album.

It’s used in this epic mix on the LOVE album from 2006 too.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

Kings of Leon – “Supersoaker”

Alright! So Kings of Leon are back, and this is their new single “Supersoaker”. There’s the audio-video right up there.

It premiered yesterday on Zane Lowe’s radio show on BBC Radio 1. I missed the first time it played.

But then it played again later….. and I was quite pleased! Only a few posts ago was I talking about how I didn’t like the new sound that they were going for now and how I was dissappointed that they had sold out or whatever. But this song is like a mix of that sound and their “Aha Shake Heartbreak” material. Reminds me of “Taper Jean Girl” in particular. This is what I wanted. They’ve gone back to where they once belonged. You can hear their roots in the song. The only recent song I can think of when they have done this is “Back Down South”, and that’s not even a bad song. I find myself singing that from time to time. Stick to your roots, KOL.

It’s a thumping four-on-the-floor western rocker with Caleb’s crooning vocals over the relentless guitars and jumpy bassline in the verses and everything. Yeah… I can dig this. This is a good first single.

Their new album “Mechanical Bull” is released in September.

Bye!

My iPod #87: Nine Black Alps – Behind Your Eyes

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Hmmm….. so Nine Black Alps. I briefly touched upon them on a previous post – one that was quite rushed, seeing as I had forgotten to do a post on it in the ‘A’ series.

I always go on about my favourite bands on here. There’s They Might Be Giants, and Billy Talent too. Well, Nine Black Alps are another. Let me tell you why.

Why, I must have been ten years old or something when I first saw their video for “Unsatisfied” on MTV2. I always changed the channel when it came on, because the introduction sounded so depressing….. and the lead singer never smiled or anything. He just looked bored all the time. I didn’t wanna watch that. They then released “Just Friends” as a single, and that was a song I didn’t care for much either. For me, it was a much better song but it’s 2 and a bit minutes long, and it goes by quickly. Nope. Nine Black Alps weren’t the band for me

That was until the advert for their album “Everything Is” started airing on the television. It showed a few seconds of the two music videos for the songs I already mentioned. But it was the one for “Not Everyone” which really caught my attention. That’s for another blog. Then their songs started showing up on every EA Sports releases. First, “Cosmopolitan” was part of the EA Trax in FIFA 06, and then another of their songs, “Shot Down” appeared on Burnout Revenge.

Long story short, I got the album as a present for my eleventh birthday. It’s one of my favourites. “Behind Your Eyes” is a song from there.

“Behind Your Eyes” is one of the two acoustic songs on “Everything Is”. It comes after five songs full to the brim with hard-hitting riffs, loud guitars and various lyrics about dying, obtaining weapons and other morbid subjects. The album as a whole has quite a war-like concept to it. I’m not sure whether it’s a concept album or not. It could be.

Anyway, “Behind Your Eyes” introduces a sense of hope. A light, not quite at the end of the tunnel, but one  that shines for a few minutes until it flickers out. But you still manage to find a way through the darkness. That is until the light goes and then everything is dark again. I say that because as soon as “Behind Your Eyes” finishes, it’s back to the guitars and dark lyrics.

Yeah, it’s a pretty song amongst the madness.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #86: The Who – Behind Blue Eyes

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Hi everyone. I’m feeling good. Each day just seems to go into the next so quickly, I don’t know where the time is going.

This is the third song from this album that I’ve done a blog on, and I’ve only got five songs from Who’s Next on my iPod. Oh, well.

For those of you who don’t know, “Who’s Next” is only a compilation of songs that were supposed to be used for a much bigger project that Pete Townshend had worked on. After they had finished “Tommy”, Townshend began work on a rock-opera called “Lifehouse”. However, when he explained the concept to his friends and the other band members they just didn’t get what was going on. They couldn’t handle it.

“Behind Blue Eyes” is sung from the perspective of the villain of the story, Jumbo. It was intended to be his ‘theme song’, but of course “Lifehouse” never happened. “Who’s Next” is still considered to be the band’s best album, even though it wasn’t intended to be made. That’s quite funny. You can listen to the album’s intended tracklist, thanks to this playlist on YouTube.

“Behind Blue Eyes” is the penultimate song – before “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. It starts off with Roger singing alone over Pete’s guitar, John later joins in with the bass and vocal harmonies are introduced. The song then changes into a full rock out when Keith and the electric guitars come in. Keith’s drumming is brilliant on this, listen to them here. The song then ends with a reprise of the first sections. With three cymbal crashes on the last three words, the song fades to a close.

It’s quite of a downer. But then the last track begins, and for the next nine minutes you’ll feel great.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #85: The Futureheads – The Beginning of the Twist

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Hi everyone.

I’m feeling good today. After about seven years, I have finally got around to taking my acoustic guitar to get fixed. I only need a new high e string, but it’s taken so long. I never thought this day would come. I listened to ‘Blow Away’ by George Harrison – one of the happiest songs that I only listened to last Friday or so, on repeat on the way to the shop and back.The weather is incredibly sunny and very hot. It’s a good time to be alive.

“This Is Not the World” is The Futureheads’ third album released in 2008. They also hadn’t released an album for quite a while. “The Beginning of the Twist” was the first single, and brought back that hard-hitting, punchy feeling that’s present throughout most of their songs.

It was also the first time the band had released material on their independent label Nul Records, after leaving 679 Recordings for undisclosed reasons. It is the first song on the album, but in its own way it is announcement of their change and a message that things will not be the same. I don’t think it’s in any way autobiographical, I just thought of that. It’s all up to interpretation.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.