This is a tough category. All of the songs on the my upcoming top fifty songs list have excellent vocals, many of which are standout performances. However, there are also songs that go unrecognized on the top fifty list that are notable for their outstanding vocals. Thus, as a rule, songs included in the top fifty list are not considered here.
I suppose you could consider this my way of sneaking in an extra ten songs that I didn’t find room for on my best songs list, but I hope you’ll consider it an additional category. These ten songs are great in their own rights, but especially by virtue of the excellence of their vocals. Some are smooth, some are rough; some are passionately outraged, some are tenderly heartfelt. Taken together, they’re the standout vocal performances of 2011:
1) “Something to Believe In” – Parachute (The Way It Was)
2) “Estate Sale Sign” – The Mountain Goats (All Eternals Deck)
Tonight’s session, Ben Folds’ “Bastard,” is the opening track to one of the most memorable albums in my collection. Songs For Silverman was released in 2005, a few years after I had really gotten into listening to albums. When I say “gotten into,” I mean that albums quickly became one of the few subjects that truly captured my attention and imagination as a high school senior. As I got into college, I quickly found a slew of new albums that I thought were incredible, ranging from the classics like Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde to new music from Paul McCartney and the Wallflowers. I will always look back at that period of my life and fondly recall how new it all felt.
By 2005, I unwittingly began to fall into the traps that I had scoffed others for, specifically those like the Dylan fans who booed him when he went electric. Was it different? Yes. But, was it amazing music? Absolutely! I couldn’t fathom how close-minded people could be to new music. Unfortunately, two albums that I disliked upon their release — the Wallflowers’ Rebel, Sweetheart and the aforementioned Ben Folds’ Songs For Silverman — I later went on to greatly respect. I had to ask myself, why didn’t I initially fall in love with them?
The answer to this question lies in expectations. I expected Songs For Silverman to be as dynamic a record as Rockin’ The Suburbs, his previous and debut solo release. I expected him to play all the instruments and sing all the harmonies. When I listened to the album, there was a consistent sound throughout each of the tracks. He used a bass player and a drummer to augment his piano. It simply wasn’t what I expected. And to top it off, magazines like Rolling Stone were praising it for being more mature and overall better than Rockin’ The Suburbs, an album that I absolutely loved.
It is for this reason that Songs for Silverman holds a special place on my CD rack — it is an album that I didn’t give a fair chance. Ever since this realization, I have tried to approach each new album for what it is — a new album. It may not be the same or even as good as previous work, but if I give it a chance, I might enjoy it or even find it to be better! I know how much Jim Fusco and my sister, Jaime, love the songs on this album — Jaime didn’t take this CD out of her car for weeks after its release — and I’m glad I finally came around.
Well, I hope this makes up for my lack of post on my “7 8 9” video three days ago; I was just so tired that I couldn’t think straight. And I felt that video spoke for itself; it was amazingly fun to record. With Jim there to add acoustic flairs and background vocals, we knocked it out in a couple takes. We would have recorded some more from our long duet list — about ten or fifteen at this point — but hunger (and the need for ant traps) set in…
I hope you enjoy “Bastard.” You’ll get to hear my embarrassing and mercifully rare falsetto. You’ll get to hear me flub a couple of words noticeable only to the Ben Folds fanatic. You’ll get to see me (most likely) create enemies because I’ve broken Ben Folds’ general no-guitars policy and recorded an acoustic cover song of this song.
Em
On a long and lonesome highway east of Omaha,
D
You can listen to the engine moanin’ out his one note song.
A Em
You can think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before.
But your thoughts will soon be wanderin’ the way they always do,
When you’re riding sixteen hours and there’s nothing much to do.
You don’t feel much like ridin’ – you just wish the trip was through.
D Em
Say, here I am, on the road again.
D Em
Here I am, up on the stage.
D A
Here I go, playing the star again.
C D Em
There I go, turn the page…
You walk into a restaurant strung out from the road,
And you feel the eyes upon you as you’re shaking off the cold.
You pretend it doesn’t bother you, but you just want to explode.
Most times you can hear ’em talk, other times you can’t.
All the same old cliches – is that a woman or a man?
And you always seem outnumbered; you don’t dare make a stand…
CHORUS
Out there in the spotlight, you’re a million miles away.
Every ounce of energy you try to give away,
As the sweat pours from your body like the music that you play.
Later in the evening as you lie awake in bed
With the echoes from the amplifiers ringin’ in your head,
You smoke the day’s last cigarette, remembering what she said…
CHORUS
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
For Death Cab for Cutie chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
This one gave me blisters on me fingers and numbness in me thumb (thanks to all the sliding up and down the guitar neck, the barre chords in the progression, and the fact that I didn’t really know the lyrics to the verses before playing it tonight), but it was all worth it, for all two minutes of it.
And, quite a number of takes of this simple little song later, I know the lyrics by heart!
“The Sound of Settling” is the second single from Death Cab for Cutie’s fourth album, Transatlanticism. This is the album that my sister, Jaime, strongly recommended I hear if I hear nothing else from the band. Seeing as how this is one of those “I’ve heard of them, but I haven’t heard any of their songs” bands for me, I picked it up on sale and enjoyed it. Apparently, it was the first album that frontman Ben Gibbard felt was a truly serious, well put together record.
While I like several of the songs on this album very much, I haven’t found myself very interested in picking up their other material, as they seem to have a penchant for EPs and other non-album releases. Those sorts of releases seem nice if you’re a fan and have new material to look forward to, but they’re really quite expensive over the long run. Consider Ben Folds’ EPs Speed Graphic, Sunny 16, and Super D; those added up to a combined total of about $24.00 for 15 songs, about 7 or maybe 8 of which were any good. This is not a slight to the good songs on these EPs; some were tremendous and among his best ever released.
Then there were the covers and outtakes from previous albums that he re-recorded. And, as any music fan knows, some songs were never meant to see official release outside of designated bonus track status on another album or collection.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this cover song music video, as it is the first Death Cab for Cutie song to be debuted at the Laptop Sessions blog. There was so little new music of interest this week as well as last week that even I don’t feel a need to visit Newbury Comics today. And THAT’S saying something! So, instead, I went back to my iPod to find a band that we had missed along the way. There are still a lot of bands that have gone uncovered, as well as classic and/or great songs from artists that we have, so don’t even think about taking us out of your “Favorites” menu.
Instead, be sure to stop by later tonight when our founder makes his triumphant return to the second day of the week as it should be: Jim Fusco Tuesday!
See you next session!
(The text of my original Monday night post follows below the video…)
Well, my cover song music video for tonight is recorded, rendered, and ready to go…
…and if I actually had Internet (thanks for nothing, Cox!) or even a wireless signal from an unsuspecting, password-phobic neighbor, you’d be reading my post and watching my video. Instead, I’ll be posting both my session and the accompanying chords tomorrow after I get a visit from the cable guy (lower case for any of you Jim Carrey fans thinking the worst!) some time between 10:30 and 12:30.
Until then, I’ll leave you with the following clues about the song I’m playing:
1) The song is from one of my favorite albums to listen to at night in a dark room, sometimes to fall asleep to.
2) The aforementioned album is NOT “Pet Sounds.”
3) My sister recommended this band and album.
4) The band is named for the song performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in the 1967 Beatles movie, “Magical Mystery Tour.”
5) The band’s name is comprised of four words – an adjective, a noun, a preposition, and an object of the prep. -in that order.
Okay, that’s all I’ll give you. Check back Tuesday afternoon for the startling conclusion to this post!
