Errors-To: owner-ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #478 ecto, Number 478 Monday, 8 March 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Joni Mitchell Happy in Musicland!! Re: He said it, not me :-) Re: Equipoised phone numbers for Bay Area Radio Stations Equipoise Until the end of the posts He said it, not me :-) Bay Area Radio Jane Siberry/K.D. Lang Verdrossenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft? :-) ======================================================================== Date: 08 Mar 1993 09:39:22 -0500 (EST) From: "she listens like her head's on fire.." Subject: Joni Mitchell >Hi all >I was just wondering, can someone reccomend what Joni Mitchell cd would >be a good one to get? Blue The song Blue (from 'Blue') was the first one I ever heard by her. (it was the only song my mother knew how to play on a piano.:-) Blue still remains my favorite out of all her work. >Thanks You're welcome ======================================================================== From: dorje@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Michelle Berkowitz) Subject: Happy in Musicland!! Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 8:58:15 CST Well, my spousal-type-person wanted to pick up some new music after work Friday, so we headed over to Musicland (Rose Records has been anno ying lately)....I wasn't expecting anything, but I headed over to the "H" bin in the CD section for a quick status check -- was I thrilled to see a copy each of I, II, Rearmament, Ecto, and Warpaint!!!! No sign of Equipoise yet though. I am still among the CD-deprived, so I decided to check out the tape section. Sure enough, they had a tape copy of Warpaint as well. So, I'm a few bucks poorer and a whole lot Happy-er as I write this today. It's good to see the "mainstream" stores catching on. BTW, I hope this message isn't too annoying to read...I'm logged into my Unix account via telnet through my VM account. Sorry if it's a mess! Peace, Shelby ======================================================================== Date: 08 Mar 1993 10:09:39 -0500 (EST) From: "she listens like her head's on fire.." Subject: Re: He said it, not me :-) >Hi all, > I was converting yet another person across to Happy the other day. He loved >her but I thought you might like his comment, which craked me up at the time. >He was lissening to WWMFC as his first song and it got to the chours and he's >just amazed and blurts out "My GOD! She's got balls!!" :-) hmm.. forgive my ignorance but what is "WWMFC"?? Quenby ======================================================================== From: Steve Fagg Subject: Re: Equipoised Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 15:06:20 BST On Mon, 8 Mar 93 at 07:32:44 MST, dbx@teton.atmos.colostate.edu (Doug Burks) wrote: > "Save Our Souls" is the first Happy song to truly irritate me. I thoroughly > disagree with her philosophy from one end of the song to the other. I'll save > you my full ranting and raving, and just raise one example. The basic theme > is Happy's singing for the aliens to rescue earth, so much so that a better > title might be "E.T., phone back!" :) This theme of rescue is underscored by > the song titles initials, and Happy even sings "S.O.S." in the background. > However, I completely reject this throwing up one's hands, throwing in the > towel in disgust at the world's troubles. It reminds me of some isolated > Christian sects who huddle in remote corners of the globe, waiting for > Rapture. Well, if you wait for God to solve the world's problems, if you wait > for extraterrestrials to solve the world's problems, nothin's gonna happen. > Problems are only solved by our rolling up our own sleeves, and getting our > hands dirty. End of grumbling. [I will admit the slight possibility that > Happy may not be playing this entirely straight, but the same theme of running > from problems is apparent in "Runners", too (though she may not be playing it > straight there either. :) )] I couldn't disagree more strongly with this interpretation of "SOS". It is one of my favourite tracks from "Equipoise" (full review still under construction) precisely because I see it as presenting quite the opposite point of view to that which Doug sees in the song. To my ears, Happy is singing about how pathetic the human race is for trying to get in touch with aliens when we can't even manage to cope with the species here on Earth. She seems to me to suggest that an alien intelligence would not be impressed by being offered a TV show when we put members of our own species in refugee camps, and other species from this planet in zoos. Judged by our actions, rather than our self-image on the golden disk, we wouldn't look good from an alien point of view, and we should concentrate on putting our own house in order before worrying about SETI. I hear an acid irony in just about every line of this song, and the 'pity our emptiness' line suggests to me that the people who are so keen on aliens are the empty ones for having that attitude. If I thought Happy was the kind of person to suggest we should put our faith in aliens to come in and solve all our problems for us, I'd give up on her music at once. It just doesn't ring true to me. I only hope I haven't been guilty of projecting my own views onto her lyrics to such an extent that I've misjudged her that badly. Frankly, I doubt I have. So, Ectophiles, you now have two positions before you about as far apart as possible on this song. There's plenty of middle ground between Doug's interpretation and mine, so let's hear some of your views! P.S. None of the above should be construed as a personal flame on Doug. -- Regards Steve Fagg ( S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk +44-279-402437 ) BNR Europe Ltd., London Road, Harlow, Essex, CM17 9NA, UK *** "Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown". *** ======================================================================== From: Steve Fagg Subject: Re: He said it, not me :-) Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 15:16:18 BST On 08 Mar 1993 at 10:09:39 -0500 (EST), "she listens like her head's on fire.." wrote: > >Hi all, > > > I was converting yet another person across to Happy the other day. He loved > >her but I thought you might like his comment, which craked me up at the time. > >He was lissening to WWMFC as his first song and it got to the chours and he's > >just amazed and blurts out "My GOD! She's got balls!!" :-) > > hmm.. > forgive my ignorance but what is "WWMFC"?? "Words Weren't Made for Cowards" from "Warpaint". Didn't you just post that you'd recently bought a tape of "Warpaint"? Naughty of you to not already be 100% familiar with all the songs, their titles, potential abbreviations thereof, lyrics, meanings, and the past history of Ecto discussion of each. Do I really need a :-) ? OK, then... :-) -- Regards Steve Fagg ( S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk +44-279-402437 ) BNR Europe Ltd., London Road, Harlow, Essex, CM17 9NA, UK *** "Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown". *** ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 07:21:48 PST From: tjshadb@deneb.csustan.edu (Troy James Shadbolt) Subject: phone numbers for Bay Area Radio Stations Someone had mentioned a need for Phone Numbers to the radio stations, here are a few in my local area which I have personally been nagging to get Happy on. K-101 (EZ listening - but it is a hi-power station) listener line: (415) 956 - 1013 studio line: (415) 478 - 5101 KUSF 90.3 (UC San Francisco Radio) request line: (415) 751 - 5873 KITS LIVE 105 (Modern Rock for the Bay Area) request line: (415) 478 - 5483 KOHL 89.3 (Ohlone College Radio) request line: (510) 657 - 5645 Other News: Rasputin Records in Berkeley, Ca has Happy in stock. On Saturday I saw five copies of Equipoise and about a dozen copies of Warpaint. Just to drum up the sales, I asked to hear Equipoise before I bought it (I'm a stinker aren't I?) So they had RUNNERS pumping through there PA system full length. Needless to say, by the time I left, they had NO COPIES of Equipoise on the floor, and about four copies of Warpaint! Troy -- the stealth salesman. :) ======================================================================== From: "Michael Blackmore" Date: 8 Mar 93 10:33:20 EST Subject: Re: He said it, not me :-) Quenby says >forgive my ignorance but what is "WWMFC"?? Refers to the song "Words Weren't Made for Cowards" off Happy's album WARPAINT. - Michael B. ======================================================================== Date: 08 Mar 1993 11:15:45 -0500 (EST) From: "she listens like her head's on fire.." Subject: Equipoise Hello, I hope this gets through...other posts I have tried to make have been returned to me via the server, rejected. Oh well... In his review of Equipoise, Doug asks what Happy is singing in the background of The Flight. To my ears it sounds like "we are mortal". I just got Equipoise this weekend and this song caught my attention. Also, being a fan of Kate Bush, I naturally listen to whats going on in the background.;-) Another thing I wanted to reply to was the interpretation of Save Our Souls. I believe that the song is ironic. At least, that is how it appears to me in the few times I have listened to it. However, it is my least favorite song on Equipoise so I can't say I have paid much attention to it. just a few thoughts.. -Quenby ======================================================================== Subject: Until the end of the posts Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 13:04:27 EST From: Angelos Kyrlidis Hi all! Well, first I'd like to thank the NJ chapter of ecto for its wonderful hospitality! Thanks for a great time to all!! And now for something completely different. A Klaus from Angelos. You are probably used to small instant replies but this time, time permitting I will go through the last series of posts. Rewind to last Wednesday. ---------- Mark P writes: >Me three! Any more out there? Martin is also Greek, so there's four of us so far! >I am only half Greek Cypriot though, does that count? I guess! :) ---------- Mitch writes: >WRT the colloquy on Greek cuisine: Apart from the inimitable gyros sandwich, >my favorite Greek food item is taramosalata, the redoubtable fish spread. Yum! Well, I wish I knew how to make that. That and some melitzanosalata, and some warm pitas (the *real* greek ones)... Is it lunch time yet? :) ---------- Meth writes re: OLAL: >What an amazing song. The thought occurred to me this afternoon: what was >Happy's father's name? (Am I way off-base here, Vickie?) Agreed!!! My absolute Happy favorite for now. Clears throat... great minds think almost alike. ;) ---------- Re: Vickie's Happy Tori story. Vickie, **** W O W ****. The story was so amazingly cool! ---------- Jeff and Meredith talk about Happy liking/disliking Tori. One of them is right. It's not Meredith. ---------- Bob Kollmeyer writes: >The other, which I assumed was off of Rearmament, had a sticker: >NEVER HEARD BEFORE RECORDINGS BY QUEEN'S LEGENDARY LEAD SINGER Wow, I am not surprised though. She *is* a Queen fan, so it makes sense why she bought 'The great pretender'. Now, why did she include the wrapper is something we will never know. ---------- Doug reviews Equipoise: Spoilers... >Stop me if you've read this before, but _Equipoise_ didn't grab me on the >first listen. Hey Doug, stop! :) >"Runners" is an example of this problem, as I find its political message >simplistic. Good point. Is it a message she is pushing, or is it an ironic view at the same message, ironic meaning that it is dealt with in a totally simplistic way by most people. In an earlier post, I posted that I thought it was sung through the point of view of someone totally obsessed by the problems involved adding some irony to the whole song. I wonder what the true scoop is. >"Save Our Souls" is the first Happy song to truly irritate me. [explanation of why follows but is deleted for byte conservation] I will totally agree with what Steve posted about this. The song is a stab at those who are waiting for a solution to all problems of humanity to come from the skies. So Doug, go back and listen again. I think you will agree! >As others have noted, "Closer" serves as the fulcrum point of _Equipoise_, >likely Happy's most personal song on it. Lacking any knowledge of the true >context of the song, I'm not going to enter the tar pit of trying to decipher >her lyrics. So I am not the only one who doesn't know what she is talking about. Closer to WHAT than before? [I am tempted to believe that she is singing to her 'cohabitant' but it doesn't make complete sense.] ------- Quenby writes: >In his review of Equipoise, Doug asks what Happy is singing in the >background of The Flight. To my ears it sounds like "we are mortal". I always thought she is singing: 'VIVA AMORE' in the context of eternal love that is the driving force of the songs. There are also two other things I wanted to ask. a)In the end of Runners is Happy screaming a la KaTe or it is a synth imitating a human voice? b)In OLAL, after the 'he'd broken his lease' line, *what* does she sing? It sounds like 'learn to fly' but I am not sure. Any input is welcome on these two burning questions. Phew! Does it qualify as a Klaus? :) Angelos ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 10:01:54 -0800 From: piaw@pure.com (Na Choon Piaw) Subject: He said it, not me :-) > I was converting yet another person across to Happy the other day. He loved >her but I thought you might like his comment, which craked me up at the time. >He was lissening to WWMFC as his first song and it got to the chours and he's >just amazed and blurts out "My GOD! She's got balls!!" :-) I played "Warpaint" for a friend of mine a couple of Fridays ago, and she too, as she read the lyrics to WWMFC, said, "She's got a lot of courage." I agree. I still like "Warpaint", the song better than WWMFC, just because I can't get used to the sound of WWMFC. All my Happy CDs arrived on Friday night! Yes! Piaw "I'm a computer nerd and proud of it!" --- Jay Miner, Inventor of the Amiga and several other machines, 1989. ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 11:02:51 -0800 From: szimmerm@lynx.cs.usfca.edu (Scott Zimmerman) Subject: Bay Area Radio Troy, you wrote: >KUSF 90.3 (UC San Francisco Radio) >request line: (415) 751 - 5873 Sinner! You've associated the station with the wrong school! :) KUSF is broadcast from USF -- Not UCSF! UCSF doesn't have a station as far as I know. I think SF State has one, though. (KSFS?) Rasputin Records really had that many Happy Rhodes CDs and they were sold -that- quickly? WOW! That's amazing! Scott ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 20:04:54 +0100 From: yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no (Yngve Hauge) Subject: Jane Siberry/K.D. Lang What album should I buy first by Jane Siberry and K.D. Lang? Yngve -- *** Yngve Hauge ******* And the summer became the fall ****** ** University of Tromsoe ** I was not ready for the winter ** * yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no ** It makes no difference at all **** *********************** 'Cause I wear boots all summer long * ======================================================================== From: special K Subject: Re: Jane Siberry/K.D. Lang Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 14:27:51 EST > What album should I buy first by Jane Siberry and K.D. Lang? Since I seem to be the closest thing to a kd expert on this list, I'll offer my $.02 as far as her stuff is concerned. My answer is "It depends". That is because her 5 albums are somewhat different from each other. If you want to hear (what she calls) CowPunk, buy _A Truly Western Experience_, her first release (on her own label, Bumstead) or _Angel With a Lariat_, her first major label release. If you want traditional country, buy her third release titled _Shadowland_, with producer Owen Bradley (of Patsy Cline, et. al. fame) and guest vocalists Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, and Kitty Wells. If you want contemporary fringe country, buy _Absolute Torch and Twang_, her grammy winning release of 1989. If you want "post-nuclear cabaret music" or "progressive easy listening", buy _Ingenue_, her most recent. If you want to hear Jane Siberry and kd together, get the soundtrack for the film _Until The End of the World_ and listen to "Calling All Angels". The rest of the tracks on the soundtrack are rather good as well with Neneh Cherry, REM, Julee Cruise, U2, and others. special K ****************** 'Cause I wear boots all summer long * ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:45:58 CST From: Subject: Verdrossenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft? :-) The big Langenscheidt's dictionary upstairs gives several definitions for "ver- drossen[heit]." One is annoyance, vexation, etc.; another is moroseness, surli- ness, etc.; a third I forget their exact words, but it was in the realm of apathy, burnout, exhaustion, etc. So "Politikverdrossenheit" could mean politi cal apathy, or it could mean political annoyance (either annoyance about politi cs _per se_, which in turn could lead to apathy, or vexation over specific iss- ues, which could lead to the remaining meaning in some cases), or political incivility ("moreoseness"), as some fringe groups in Germany are doing. Saturday on WBEZ, Stuart Rosenberg played a record of Bela Fleck playing Bach on the banjo, which was interesting to say the least. (Anyone catch him on NPR's _Jazz Set_ a couple weeks back? For once I have a legit alibi for sleep- ing through it, inasmuch as it was on at 4AM (as distinct from 4AD) here. In the hour immediately following, _Artistic License_ had a couple of members of Eleventh Dream Day performing live, acoustic. It was a good set. They said their next album will be out in April, and that--interstingly, to me--one of them is also in Freakwater, which has an album coming out in August. WRT Mae Moore's _Bohemia_ (in connection with Jeff's query): Like all the arti sts we discuss here, she has something in common with the others, but is ulti- mately unique. The closest thing I can think of is Suzanne Vega's _99.9 F Degr ees_, except that instead of exotic electronic effects, it has conventional electric guitars, etc., and full orchestra doing backing on some tracks. It's ana excellent album, well worth getting if you can find it. If there's any moral to be drawn from the saga of Bob Kollmeyer's _Rearmament_ wrapper: If you're a struggling young recording artist trying to save money by buying CD wrappers secondhand from the makers of other artists' CDs, be sure to send them to customers who appreciate your weird sense of humor, lest it lead to confusion :-). For some reason, Graham's "she's got balls" anecdote reminded me of something that I first remembered when somebody, I think it was kristi@arbs (not to be confused with crystal@orbs :-) ), responded to my flight of fancy WRT kd lang and her chatelaine/tool belt by quipping that _Home Improvement_ would be "too masculine" a show for her to appear on after Arsenio and Bob Costas. To make a long story longer: Years ago, there was an episode of _Mary Tyler Moore_ in which Mary was trying to establish rapport with her date's young son, and strik es up a conversation on his taste in comic books. She reminisces that when she was his age, her favorite was Wonder Woman, with her magic lasso etc.; and asks if he likes WW. "Naahh," the kid (a rather _verdrossene_ [as in surly]) sort) replies, "she's too butch." :-) Methinks that if this young man were real, and Happy were in the music business at the time, he wouldn't have thought much of her, either--too cerebral. On a more serious level WRT kd, is her first, self-published album to which Kristi referred still in print? I'd never heard of it before this, and it sounds interesting on the basis of the title alone. Also on kd, the gossip columnist in Sunday's _Sun-Times_ asserted that she and Martina Navratilova are the "New Power Couple" for these times. WRT radio stations: glad to hear that XTRA has found something to broadcast th at has some redeeming social importance. In the 60's, I have read, it was an all-news station with a rather chintzy approach to reportage, whose most distin ctive attribute otherwise was its ability to reach LA with its umpteen-kilowatt transmitter (legal in Tijuana, where it had its headquarters, but not in this country). Also, the list of Bay Area stations didn't mention KALX, the coll- ege station at UC-Berkeley, or KPFA, the Pacifica station whose music programm- ing I know nothing about, but which might have a place for Happy (and then agai n, maybe not). Talk about reincarnation: Shelby's comments on finding Happy's CDs at the Evanston Musicland brought back memories of sorts. I can remember when that edifice was the Varsity Theater, and the vertical mall on the corner was Marshall Field's. (Is Selig's clothing store still at the far end of the block , or has it too been reincarnated into another retail use?) Angelos angeloses: >my favorite Greek food item is taramosalata, the redoubtable fish spread. Yum! Well, I wish I knew how to make that. That and some melitzanosalata, and some warm pitas (the *real* greek ones)... Is it lunch time yet? :) The simplistic way out of this quandry, of course, is to take the next plane out of Logan to O'Hare, then take the Blue Line directly from the airport to the Halsted station, then walk due north on Halsted to Greek Town. What, BTW, is melitzanosalata? A belated happy International Women's Day to all. Fight entropy. To the memory of Billy Eckstine. Mitch ------------------------------------- "Fight for your right to party."--TBB ======================================================================== From: special K Subject: Re: Verdrossenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft? :-) Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 17:14:41 EST Mitch said: > On a more serious level WRT kd, is her first, self-published album to which > Kristi referred still in print? I'd never heard of it before this, and it > sounds interesting on the basis of the title alone. Yes, it's available as an import. I got my copy in Durham, NC, and saw another one here in Norfolk, VA. Neither place is a hotspot for rare recordings, so I would imagine it's fairly available elsewhere. > Also on kd, the gossip columnist in Sunday's _Sun-Times_ asserted that she > and Martina Navratilova are the "New Power Couple" for these times. No! It can't be true!!! kd and Martina?!?! special K, rolling in her grave, if she were in one ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)