I think I might have unwittingly purchased some Christian music! It’s an album by an artist I’ve just found called Peter Bradley Adams and while it’s a great album I have some nagging doubts it might be cleverly disguised Christian music.

What’s making me suspicious is the presence of some telltale Christian music hallmarks. Those are as follows:

1. I can clearly make out every word he is singing.
2. He sounds suspiciously like he might have his eyes closed and hands held high in some of these songs.
3. There is an excessive amount of angel references and use of the word “Glory.”
4. You can imagine some annoying ‘culturally relevant’ Christian youth leader loving this “secular” CD.
5. It sounds like he would never use a cuss word while singing.

I don’t know anything about the artist though he sounds very familiar to me so it’s unlikely he’s a full blown hands-in-the-air rainbow guitar strap Christian. He sounds more like one of those undercover Christians who seems normal (until they start speaking).

After listening to it all day I feel like I need to go on a drunken drug fueled porno binge while listening to cuss-filled gangsta rap. A little ‘Christian offsetting,’ like planting trees to offset your carbon emissions.

That aside, this really is good music and, undercover-Christian or not, Peter Bradley Adams musical arrangements on some of these tracks is just awesome. ‘Los Angeles‘ sounds like something you might here on a TV show like The OC or something while other tracks like ‘Chant‘ already feel familiar to me.

His music is available on emusic, mTracks and iTunes, but if he’s listed under gospel music don’t tell me. My ignorance is bliss, even if I’m a little suspicious.

—

Peter Bradley Adams (taster)

Peter Bradley Adams : Always

Peter Bradley Adams website

I’m sure you all know how this goes, but every so often a song can really grab you can’t it? You end up humming it as you go about your day, tapping your feet while you make a cup of tea, and nodding your head while you sort out your morning mail. Well this song is currently in my head, I love it, and that seemed like a good enough reason to share it with all of you.

The song is called ‘Walk You Home’ by a British band called Passenger. It’s an upbeat number which sounds like it might be just another love song, but listen closely to the words!

—

Passenger

My old friend Josh just sent an email around to everyone in the world that he knows telling us all to go a grab a copy of a free acoustic album he recorded back in 2001. In his email he said “Feel free to share and post it anywhere.” So I hope he doesn’t mind if I give it a plug on here.

I met Josh back in 98 or 99 at Gordon College, MA. I particularly remember a night in 2000 when he arrived at a friends house amid an unfolding drama that involved an overly theatrical girl called Ruth quite literally wailing over some unimportant incident like some sort of grief stricken mourner at a Baltic funeral. Josh found a quite spot on the balcony whereupon he took out his guitar and started singing songs in the company of those who were trying to steer clear of the overly emotional meltdown.

Between the wailing and shouting downstairs, and the passing cars where the engine was drowned out by the booming bass emanating from them, Josh played a selection of songs which cut their way through Salem’s seedier side setting us all free like prisoners on day passes. He saved that night as I recall, then he got back into his famous white Chevy Cavalier which everyone knew as ‘Mr. Whippy.’

At some point in 2000 I recorded one of my ‘Reality Radio‘ shows in the Salem Beer Works with Josh and friends Anne and Jodie. He told stories and sang without prompt as we whiled away the evening drinking strange brews like the ‘Bunker Hill Blueberry Ale‘ and ‘Beantown Nut Brown Ale.’

A year later in 2001, Josh and his guitar known as ‘The Ever-Vigilant Birdy Pie’ set out on a 45 day Greyhound bus trip all the way around the Continental United States.

On the day that they returned, and after a 10 hour bus ride from Ottawa to Boston, they went right into the studio to record “Trans-American Bus Roots“. Now, some 7 years later Josh has decided to give that collection of songs away for free.

His style might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll admit that I have to be in a ‘Josh Cole’ kinda mood to listen to his stuff. But hey, it’s free music which, like free beer, always tastes better right? My favorite Josh track is on this collection to. It’s called ‘Talkin’ Paris, Las Vegas Blues’, I guess it reminds me of that night on the balcony in Salem… Hmm, I wonder what became of theatrical Ruth?

Thanks for the tunes Josh!

Lookin for a Song (For the Singin’s Sake)

Talkin’ Paris, Las Vegas Blues

—

Josh Cole - Trans-American Bus Roots (Free music!)
Josh Cole’s website
Reality Radio : Me, Josh and friends recorded in a bar in Salem, MA

The artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince has decided to sue fans who post pictures of him or re-print any of his lyrics on their websites. With that in mind I’ve decided to post a montage of Prince pictures and re-print some of his lyrics.

Prince has written a handful of decent (and some fairly indecent) songs but lets face it, these days he’s a dick!

His purple reign has long since come to an end and he hasn’t really been musically or culturally relevant since the early nineties when he took the bizarre decision of changing his name to a symbol. Since then his star has faded and presumably as a method of coping with the fact he’s a has-been, and maybe even making a few bucks in the process, he now spends time “protecting his image” online by suing the big video sharing sites.

But now it seems the popped star is turning his legal attentions onto his fans, threatening to sue them for posting images of him and his album covers as well as the lyrics of any of his songs.

Part of me wants to believe that Prince has merely created this news story in order to put himself back into the glow of the media spotlight so he can jiggle whatever he has left to wiggle before we all grow tired of him again. But in five minutes, when we’ve all moved on, the only thing anyone will really remember is that the aging pop singer remains musically and culturally irrelevant and, to be blunt, is still a dick.

So, with no further ado, clear your throats and sing an old Prince song from those heady old days when he was still capable of writing good material.

Sign O’ The Times

Oh yeah
In France a skinny man
Died of a big disease with a little name
By chance his girlfriend came across a needle
And soon she did the same
At home there are seventeen-year-old boys
And their idea of fun
Is being in a gang called The Disciples
High on crack, totin’ a machine gun

Time, time

Hurricane Annie ripped the ceiling of a church
And killed everyone inside
U turn on the telly and every other story
Is tellin’ U somebody died
Sister killed her baby cuz she could afford 2 feed it
And we’re sending people 2 the moon
In September my cousin tried reefer 4 the very first time
Now he’s doing horse, it’s June

Times, times

It’s silly, no?
When a rocket ship explodes
And everybody still wants 2 fly
Some say a man ain’t happy
Unless a man truly dies
Oh why
Time, time

Baby make a speech, Star Wars fly
Neighbors just shine it on
But if a night falls and a bomb falls
Will anybody see the dawn
Time, times

It’s silly, no?
When a rocket blows
And everybody still wants 2 fly
Some say a man ain’t happy, truly
Until a man truly dies
Oh why, oh why, Sign O the Times

Time, time

Sign O the Times mess with your mind
Hurry before it’s 2 late
Let’s fall in love, get married, have a baby
We’ll call him Nate… if it’s a boy

Time, time

Time, time

—

Prince sites face legal threats
Prince Threatens To Sue Own Fans Over Fansites
Prince Fans United

“Shoulder pads and shit music” was the way a friend of mine once described the 1980’s, the decade in which I went from being interested in bikes and creepy crawlies to cars and girls. But is it fair to look back at the 80’s and judge that time so harshly? Some evidence, like the video below, is hard to defend.

Arguably one of the worst things about the 1980’s, apart from Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, was the ‘ready-mix’ pop music factory of Stock Aitken & Waterman. From the mid eighties through to the early 90’s the three songwriters (and I use that term loosely) wrote and produced over 200 top 40 UK hits making them one of the most successful song-writing and producing partnership of all time.

The Stock Aitken & Waterman typical recipe for success was to take some moderately talented person, write them a catchy tune, then get them to bounce around in a video for the song which would be a hit is the clubs and seep into common culture like an undiscovered chemical leak.

Among some of the names the trip gave us (inflicted upon us?) were Rick Astley, Bananarama, Divine, Jason Donovan, Samantha Fox, Mel and Kim, Kylie Minogue, Pepsi & Shirlie, Sabrina, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Sinitta, and that annoying squeeky voiced scoucer, Sonia.

Some of the music was truly awful. In fact, lets just be honest here and say that in truth all of the music was truly awful. Synth pop high energy rubbish that coiled itself into your brain like a rhythmic parasite. Many a teenage party I attended included the ‘classics’ like Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up‘ and Sam Fox’s embarrassing elevation from Page 3 girl to pop babe with ‘Touch me‘.

For me, the lowest high point (or maybe the highest low point?) of the Stock Aitken & Waterman days was the fleeting appearance of ‘Sabrina.’ Presumably chosen for her sizable ‘natural talents‘, Italian Sabrina Salerno was plucked from obscurity to sing the 1987 hit ‘Boys (Summertime Love)‘. The track was a huge success based in no small part on Miss Salerno’s bouncy performance in the music video (above).

The funny thing is, no matter how crap the songs actually were, many of Stock Aitken & Waterman’s tracks have become ingrained in history as musical marker points (though what they mark is open to debate). The power of music is that it triggers memories and so despite the fact they are undoubtedly crap songs, a lot of Stock Aitken & Waterman’s tunes take me and others back to simpler days, and with that they hold a value I never imagined they would.

So while we might not be prepared to yet forgive Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan for their part on the 1980’s, forgiving Stock Aitken & Waterman might actually be possible. Who know, in another twenty years we might all be able to forgive likes of Brittany Spears, 50 Cent and Eminem!

—

Sabrina ‘Boys (Summertime Love)’
Another amusing ‘Boys (Summertime Love)’ performance
Stock Aitken & Waterman
Sabrina (now a hot Mom) sings a new song ‘I love you’