Alright, here’s the rest of the songs I played at Bards last night.
Hard to Handle by Etta James: This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, but wasn’t released until after his death. Etta James is, of course, best known for her song, “At Last”.
DWYCK by Gangstarr with Nice and Smooth: Gangstarr has long been a legend in the underground hip hop scene, and gained some fans outside of hip-hop with his Jazzmattazz albums. On this song he is joined by two guys with nice voices but laughingly awful lyrics. Perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious rap line ever comes from Smooth B in this song: Like a rhinoceros, my speed is prosperous. And pure knowledge expands from my esophagus This marks the only time in hip hop history someone has rhymed rhinoceros and esophagus.
I’ve Been Everywhere, Man by Johnny Cash: Little needs to be said about Johnny Cash that you haven’t already heard me say. As far as being everywhere, Charles Valey of San Francisco, has been to 518 countries, which is weird because I only thought there were like 300 countries. Oh well, here’s a really interesting article about dude.
Baby C’Mon by Ol’ Dirty Bastard. He gets his name b/c there is no father to his style. How great was it when he jumped on stage during the Grammy’s and bitched b/c he had gotten a new suit in anticipation of winning best rap album, which he lost to the talentless Puff Daddy? “When it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children,” he said before he was escorted off stage. ODB had a lot of children of his own to teach, at least 13. He was arrested at a McDonald’s in Philly in 2000.
Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes. This is probably the only song I played on Tuesday that I would never play by myself while listening to my ipod. I don’t really like 80s white people music much, but I recognize that I am in the minority, and most people love this song. I didn’t realize it until today, but Kim Carnes also appeared on the first record I ever owned, Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits in the song Don’t Fall in Love With a Dreamer. I always assumed that was Dolly Parton.
Gasoline Dreams by Outkast: This is a song off the group’s Stankonia album. Here’s something I didn’t realize until today: that the song Ms. Jackson on that same album is about Andre 3000s breakup with Erykah Badu.
Glass Onion by the Beatles: This song is kind of a joke, where the Beatles are making fun of all the people who, at the time, were searching desperately for hidden meanings in Beatles songs. It comes off the White Album, which was actually not titled the White Album. It was titled “The Beatles”, but people called it the white album for obvious reasons.