Tag Archives: time

#986: Daft Punk – One More Time

1 Reply

There’s a clip of a 5/6-year-old me watching Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’ video just for a moment on Top of the Pops, all the way back in 2001. It might just be a figment of my imagination, but I’m quite sure that it happened. But I wouldn’t have understood what was with all the blue people or why the music video was a cartoon. All the videos I’d seen at that point had people in them. The song reached number two in the charts over here in the UK. But between 2001-2010, I had honestly forgotten that the song had existed until one of my schoolmates spontaneously started singing it in between classes. That act alone reminded me how much of an earworm it was. It was like it had been my favourite song for all those forgotten years. Wasn’t too long that I downloaded Discovery and reaped all the benefits.

‘One More Time’ opens that album. Fair to say, it might just be one of the best album openers to ever exist. Set to chopped up horns and a rhythm section sampled from Eddie Johns’ ‘More Spell on You’, the track is a five-and-a-half celebration of dance and music and a call for people to let loose just once more before letting things come to an end. The beat is repetitive. The lyrics, written and performed by Romanthony, are also recycled on and on. Almost like a skipping record. But the message has to be said clearly for all to hear. We have to celebrate. Don’t stop the dancing. And we can’t stop, because they both make everyone feel so free. A lot of “yeahs” and “come ons” and “all rights” added into the mix, and Romanthony and Daft Punk provide us with a universal hit.

I think the best part about the track, though, is that it isn’t all four-on-the-floor thumping for the duration it lasts for. Things get all spacey around the two-minute mark, where almost all the instruments drop out and leave a soothing synthesizer to play a relaxing chord progression behind Romanthony’s auto-tuned vocals. Brings a huge sense of calm and serenity amongst the partying madness. But of course it can’t last forever, as those horns rise up in the mix again and the good times start all over again. Gotta appreciate Romanthony’s vocals in general. It seems that the vocal take is something of a cut-and-paste job where he sang each phrase individually, which were then sorted into a flowing lyrical piece where each phrase segues into the next. And that’s not to put it down, the technique is awesome. Yes, he’s auto-tuned to oblivion, but for great effect rather than masking a bad vocalist. The result deserves a great chef’s kiss. 20+ years and this track still sounds massive.

#984: John Lennon – One Day (At a Time)

Leave a reply

Just a note to take into account before you read this. This track isn’t actually six minutes and 36 seconds long. There are two versions of this song in it, but I’m really only talking about the first 3 minutes in there or so. If you want to carry on listening after, that’s up to you. Cool. That’s out of the way.*

When I was really getting into the Beatles at the beginning of the tail-end of the 00s, I came across this project online called Everyday Chemistry. The website where you could download it provided the backstory. This was an album created in a parallel universe where the Beatles never broke up in 1970 that somehow made its way to our planet. Quite the way to get people interested. Really, it’s just a mashup album created by a fan using solo Beatles work. In the vein of the official Beatles LOVE record. And it wasn’t actually bad. In fact, it was this project that got me thinking about listening to the Beatles solo projects and songs. One track on there that struck my ear immediately was ‘Anybody Else’, which was a mashup of McCartney’s track ‘Somedays’, Ringo Starr’s ‘Monkey See – Monkey Do’, and an alternate take of John Lennon’s ‘One Day (At a Time)’ taken from the 1998 Anthology compilation. The latter was the anchor of this song, providing the bassline and what is essentially the main riff. So it only made sense to seek out the original and see what was going on.

‘One Day (At a Time)’ was written and recorded during a period when John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s marriage was on the rocks, just before they properly separated and Lennon went on an 18-month bender in Los Angeles. I feel the track is meant to act as something of a statement from Lennon to Ono as to why they should stay together. With he being the fish to her sea, the bee to her honey and so on and so forth, he feels they’re two people who complete each other. Any trouble arises then taking things day by day should be the way to right any wrongs. As mentioned before, that route didn’t work out. But man, this track makes for some truly comfortable listening. Probably the coziest recording Lennon ever made. This is bare bones, made up of Lennon’s cool vocal, a keyboard, bass guitar and drums played with brushes rather than sticks, and a twinkling guitar that provides a backdrop during the verses. It’s like the the musicians are playing right in front of you in this dark lounge, smoke in the room, people wearing shades. It’s magic stuff. So relaxing, so warm. You listen to those first three minutes up there. You’d think that take could have been on an official album, right?

Well, wrong. With some advice on Ono’s part to sing the vocal in a falsetto range, and the addition of backing vocalists and maybe a steel pedal guitar, the track was released in its ‘final form’ on Lennon’s Mind Games album in 1973. I don’t like this version as much. Not a lot, to be honest. With the alternate Anthology take, Lennon singing in his natural range provided so much more sincerity, in my opinion. The decision to go falsetto on the album doesn’t sit right with me. I guess by doing so he’s meant to sound like some innocent child or something. Maybe meant so sound more vulnerable? I don’t know. To me it comes off as if he’s making fun of the entire thing. Considering it was Ono’s idea, he probably didn’t want to do it that way. Think the backing singers and the added instrumentation is a bit extra too. But hey, that’s just me. I’ll stick to the Anthology. Listen to the album version for yourself and decide.

*06/10/24 – This was written at a point where the original video was completely different. Now, with the Mind Games reissue, the actual version I prefer is up.

#659: Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

1 Reply

Hello there. Your favourite series is back, this time covering the Js, coming to you every other day until those songs are done. There aren’t a lot of songs I have on my phone beginning with ‘J’. It’s one of those letters that don’t really appear quite frequently at the start of a word. The songs to come are great though. At least I think so. I’ve been okay if you wanted to know. Been learning to drive and steadily getting there. That’s about it. On to the song!

‘Jackie Collins….’ was the first single from their 2009 album Journal for Plague Lovers. Well… it wasn’t really a single. No track from that album was. Nicky Wire joked that just the titles alone for some of the tracks on there didn’t really make them suitable for a commercial release. Though it was this one that made it known that there was a new album on its way. It’s one of the lighter and poppier moments on the album, save for the last minute or so where James Dean Bradfield really lets loose on the vocals accompanied by the thrashing drums and rise in tempo. Those guitar harmonics that serve as the song’s main musical hook are brilliant too. Good musical substance packed into two and a half minutes.

The lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the band’s former guitarist and lyricist who disappeared one day in February 1995. Despite all hopes that he would some day return, he was officially presumed dead 13 years later in November of 2008. All of the lyrics on the album were written by him, if you hadn’t heard it before, and were taken from a notebook that he had left behind before his disappearance. They’re not the easiest to decipher, though that doesn’t matter really. I’ve always sensed some sort of sarcasm and satire from them though for reasons I don’t understand myself. You’d just have to listen to the song.

My iPod #462: Dananananaykroyd – Good Time

Leave a reply

“Good Time”, the seventh track on Dananananaykroyd’s final album There Is a Way, gets the album back to the original frenetic, loud, energetic, pumped-up style set in the preceding six after a calming interlude of environmental noises after the end of “Time Capsule“.

There is a lot to take in in the three minutes and sixteen seconds this song lasts for. It speeds up, slows down for the choruses, changes time signature at one point, there is stuttering, yelping, screaming, singing in unison, it lifts you up and smacks you around. If you don’t have a physical copy of the album (cos the lyrics are in there), there is a large chance you will have no idea what is being said to you most of the time. But that’s not a bad thing. As long as you have fun, which you will no doubt, then it’s fine. Just have a good time……. listening to it.

It was its unpredictability I think that made it one of the last songs from the album that I appreciated, but after a few more listens I got it. I’m glad.

My iPod #142: be your own PET – Bummer Time

Leave a reply

The song is not called ‘Blummer Time’*, the person who spelt that is dumb. It is ‘bummer’, to feel down, to be depressed, to be disappointed in something. A bummer.

For today’s post, I’m going to change things up a bit. I will take you through the song, and analyse the lyrics with you. Let’s go.

Bummertime! Bummertime!  – The song’s name is “Bummer Time”
It’s bummertime!
BUMMER!  – Why is it called “Bummer Time”? We don’t know. We’ll see soon.
(x4)

I’d think about you all week long  – She’d think about who?
My mind constantly singing your theme song  – Oh, so it’s like a character in a cartoon or something?
And did you know i looked up to you? – I’ve felt that way people on the TV at some point in my life.
I wanna be just like you! – Like a superhero kind of thing.

No one knows how it was for me – She was a true fan of this person. No one else cared.
No one knows what you meant to me – She loved this person/cartoon? A bit weird.
Everyone talks about it like they were there  – Self explanatory.
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!  – Talking is cheap. Narrator is stunned at people’s ignorance.
Everyone talks about it like they were there
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!  – So stunned, she had to repeat it twice.

I woke up early just for you – Understandable.
I waited all week long for you too – Any child does that if their favourite programme is weekly.
And there you were on my TV – Yep.
It’s like you were there just for me!  – Yeah!

Bummertime! Bummertime! – Still don’t get why there’s a bummer involved.
It’s bummertime! – It is annoying when someone doesn’t appreciate greatness.
BUMMER! – What more could possibly happen?
(x2)

When the time came I’d play along – Like Dora the Explorer? Man, I hate that shit.
I didn’t know that you’d soon be gone – Show got cancelled. Narrator gets older.
And now you’re back what can I say? – Show comes back on TV. Person she admired is older.
I can’t even look at you the same way! – He looks like crap. Narrator is disappointed.

No one knows how it was for me
No one knows what you meant to me
Everyone talks about it like they were there            SHE CARED SO MUCH FOR HIM.
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!                        ALL THOSE TIMES WERE IN VAIN.
Everyone talks about it like they were there
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!

I woke up early just for you!
I waited all week long for you too     PERSON SHE ADMIRED WAS NOTHING SPECIAL.
And there you were on my TV            HER CHILDHOOD WAS A LIE.
It’s like you were there just for me!
BUMMERTIME!                               So that’s why the song’s called “Bummer Time”.

“Bummer Time” is on be your own PET’s second album “Get Awkward”. It’s short and sweet, and totally encapsulates that feeling of disappointment when your favourite TV show returns when you’re older and you can barely look at it in the same way you did with amazement when you were a child.

Life’s a bitch.

Jamie.

09/06/2020* I’m guessing the title on the video was mispelled as ‘Blummer Time’ at the time this blog was originally uploaded. I don’t know, it’s been a while.