This is beautiful.
Pop music of the older sort, which reached a peak in the 1960s, is about beauty and joy, and their usual antecedents, youth and love. As these things have faded out of our civilization, pop music turned to the shit we have now. But occasionally some of the old vintage shows up and surprises us and reminds how it can be. And Regina’s lyrics are clever and funny and sweet.
Here it is live:
Lyrics below the fold.
“Older and Taller” Lyrics
Regina Spektor
I remembered you older and taller
But you’re younger and smaller
So who’s gonna call her and say
That you’re back again?
And all the lies, they were wiser
And wise were the lies
And the lies were on fire
And the fires were put out just to be lit again
You’re alone ’til you’re not alone
And that’s all you need to know
Every time you decide to stay
Then the world will make you go
And that’s all you need to know
All the debts, they got settled
And the settlers got cattle
But the cattle was rattled by the snakes
That were guarding the garden gates
And you retired just in time
You were about to be fired
For being so tired from hiring the ones
Who will take your place
All the lies on your resume
Have become the truth by now
And the things that you never did
Have become your youth, somehow
You know everything by now
Enjoy your youth
Sounds like a threat
Enjoy your youth
Sounds like a threat
But I will anyway
I remembered you older and taller
But you’re younger and smaller
So who’s gonna call her and say
That you’re here at last?
And all the days, they were longer
And the drinks, they were stronger
The words, we sang wrong
But the songs were remembered
And time just passed
You’re around ’til you’re not around
And that’s all I need to know
Every time you decide to stay
Then the world will make you go
And that’s all you need to know
Enjoy your youth
Sounds like a threat
Enjoy your youth
Sounds like a threat
But I will anyway
Nice tune.
The problem with pop music nowadays is also the problem with youth culture in general. The young aren’t allowed to be just kids. In the modern progressive society they are just miniature adults, and they’re expected to express themselves as mini-adults. It manifests instead as all that distorted hyper-sexual-bizarre-artificial shit. This is why what used to be mainstream and normal is now considered rare and precious, even underground. Like the Normcore movement.
Another example of current pop music of quality is Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – I Need Never Get Old. More than one commenter has seen a resemblance to the Blues Brothers.
I remember a conversation several decades ago with my niece when she was in high school. A group then up on the pop charts was mostly composed of graduates from her high school. Which was also an experience I had when I was in high school- but just one graduate. The guy is still touring, though not all the time.
It is more difficult these days to get a handle on pop music,because it is much more fragmented than when I was a lad. Back then from Boston to L.A., most listened to pretty much the same Top 40 songs. Not so anymore.
I contentedly listen to my old fogey music.
Gringo, that is a great song. The riff is from the Blues Brothers, but it actually originated from Booker T & the MGs Time is Tight
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=4cKcozEabTc
Steve Cropper’s original Memphis soul band. Easily one of the greatest songs of all time. That riff is embedded deep in the DNA of every true rock fan.
Lovely. Thanks-you for that.
The best place to find new music, whether “pop” or not, is generally on campus radio stations. That’s where I first heard such fine new stuff such as Nate Rateliff or this from the Revivalists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Pt7M0weUI
You shine like a star
You know who you are
You’re everything beautiful
She’s hot, hot like the sun
The loneliest one
Still everything beautiful
Well I’ll be god damned
You’re standing at my door
We stayed up in the city
Until the stars lost the war
So Friday night, holy ghost
Take me to your level
Show me the one I need the most
I need the most
All this bad poetry. Putting it to music helps a bit.
I’m old but I’ve moved on. Rock died long ago, right when it became mainstream. Stevie Ray was derivative, never liked him, but Clapton walked away and that made me sad. I would rather Stevie survived, than that turncoat.
Not a nice person at all. I’ve moved on to Glitch.
Magic Sword, Sword of Truth and Team BlackSheep celebrate 2015. Loud on a 4K TV would be perfect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2rC8-bNkcs&t=6s
There’s just so much stuff now, it’s instantaneous, it happens and it’s in your hand a moment later. I’m not a young person anymore, so it’s hard to gauge what they think and feel, to that of what I did. In the Booker T days it seems, there was such anticipation and excitement to see something like that live. You’d read something in a magazine, or perhaps a newspaper. You might catch a glimpse on television (before you were told to “turn that crap down!”) if you were lucky. The procurement of the tickets to see such a show…not an easy thing where I was from. Only one place sold them, a music store run by a surly drum teacher, with odd hours..”Like hell, you’ll go in there, I don’t like the looks of that guy” (he had a beard, and wore a medallion) You get the tickets! How are we going to get there? It’s an hour away…you’re driving a car built in the early sixties, with an AM radio (Wait, it’s got a tape deck!)
You get to the city, the local gendarmes are not happy to see you. You line up, the crowd is electric with excitement, a couple of hours of incredible light and sound, then you are back outside. It’s quiet, nobody has weird smiles. You get , home, more frowns, Lawrence Welk, Hee-Haw. Where the hell have I been?
Recently, I was at the supermarket, and found myself alone in an aisle laughing like a fool. Overhead, Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” was being played. Not a muzak version either. I could only think back to the days of going to the supermarket with my Mother, and her/their reaction had something like that been broadcast. Those that didn’t run out the doors would have attacked the manager, pocketbooks, pot roasts etc.