Evening Widdershins: ChatBlu’s Top Ten – part iii
Posted by: chatblu on: May 29, 2010
- In: Music | Open Thread
- Comment!
It’s not really dark here yet in SoFla, but the edges of the light are beginning to soften. It usually rains for a few minutes, and then the sky begins to simultaneously turn purple, orange and midnight blue as only a Florida sunset can. The temperature drops about eight to ten degrees, the breeze picks up, and gets me in the mood for some easy listening. Several songs come to mind, but today’s been kinda hot and sticky, so I picked this one:
This thread stays open. Fix yourself a cold drink, kick back and relax. We’re getting the hang of feeling better, I think.
38 Responses to "Evening Widdershins: ChatBlu’s Top Ten – part iii"
May 29, 2010 at 6:57 PM
Elton John channeling Chubby Checker, Freddy Cannon, and the Beach Boys:
May 29, 2010 at 6:59 PM
Sharon, this Georgia girl thanks you for sharing that song. It’s lovely.
May 29, 2010 at 7:02 PM
You know, these are some of the best music videos that I’ve ever heard. Blissed out.
May 29, 2010 at 7:11 PM
@8: Do you mean, as in the automatic moderater hates it??? I happen to really like Elton John, and the Beach Boys, and Freddy “Boom-Boom” Cannon.
May 29, 2010 at 7:17 PM
Beata, I think Chat was referring to all the videos, and no, you musical taste is not bad. It is uniquely you, and I thank you for introducing me to some folks I hadn’t listened to before.
I’d like to put up a Stan Rogers, but no one would know or listen, so I’ll do the next best thing. Here’s Carole King with Shania Twain, Celine Dion (two Canucks) and Gloria Estefan. BTW, if you didn’t know, Carole wrote this and so many other songs that made no 1 status – amazing woman – she’s the one on the piano. P.S. Carole is older than I am…..she was born in 1942 – damned if I wasn’t born in the year that was without talent – not fair.
May 29, 2010 at 7:56 PM
Going back through them now.
Beata, loved:
Tom Verlaine and Television & Sandy Denny
May 29, 2010 at 8:14 PM
La@14: I’m glad. I wondered if anyone would like Television. They are/were a bit of an acquired taste. Also The Modern Lovers. Early new wave/punk stuff.
May 29, 2010 at 8:28 PM
I learned to dance with The Cure, Beata. That should explain somethin’.
May 29, 2010 at 8:32 PM
Well, La, I should have known you would understand me. 
No one else does.
May 29, 2010 at 8:52 PM
Well, Beata, I’m not even going to go near Nirvana. LOL (My Early 20′s)
Okay, twist my arm, Tori doing one of their covers.
May 29, 2010 at 9:01 PM
Everybody’s going down memory lane – so here I go….back to the USSR. I left at age 11 in 1989, so I remember quite a bit. The biggest and most beloved pop singer in the USSR from the 1970s on has been a woman named Alla Pugacheva. (Alternatively spelled Pugachyova. She wasn’t only popular in the USSR. Many countries across Europe had a healthy appreciation for her talents and she did several sold-out concerts across Asia in the 1980s, including Japan and South Korea. It’s unfortunate that American public has so little tolerance for people not singing in English! Although Pugacheva was once profiled on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!”)
It would be impossible to overstate Pugacheva’s popularity and influence on Soviet pop music and culture. She’d be sort of Fitzgerald, Sinatra, Aretha, Joplin, Madonna and Lady Gaga rolled into one. With a 7 octave range she would sing songs ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime – and she did it all with the sort of dedication to her art I’m not sure I’ve seen from anyone else. Even in the Soviet times she occasionally managed to be controversial by being accused of throwing a tantrum at some hotel or other, and everyone talked about the fact that she was a single mom. (Her daughter, Christina Arbakayte, has become a well known singer and actress in her own right.) In recent times Pugacheva (now in her 60s) has become something of a wreck, her voice is a shade of what it used to be, but she can still belt out a tune if she needs to and annual tributes bring out who’s-who of contemporary Russian singers doing covers of her music. Last year she did a farewell tour around the world (including sold out shows across the US, where the Russians remember her in all her glory.) This song here is one of her most popular. It’s called “One Million Crimson Roses” – and at every concert you will see people bringing her nothing but red roses. This performance isn’t live; it was taped for one of those “year end/best of” programs that aired on New Year’s Day in 1983. She looks good and and is in her vocal prime. I have her almost entire discography and listen to it with some frequency. This woman is a giant.
The song is about a painter who fell in love with an actress and to impress her sold all of his belongings (including his paintings and blood), and bought her a million of crimson roses. She was so moved that she spent one night with him. But in the morning she left and he was left with nothing but memories of their night together and one million roses.
May 29, 2010 at 9:24 PM
Okay, I could post Pugacheva all night. Here’s another hit by her and here she’s singing live. The man playing the piano, Raymond Pauls, is a well-known Latvian band leader and composer and he wrote music for many Pugacheva’s hits, including “One Million Crimson Roses.” He and his orchestra frequently accompanied Pugacheva in concerts. In this performance they perform together. The song is called “Maestro” and is about a young star-smitten girl who watches a famous musician from the audience night after night – but he pays no attention to her. Finally she becomes a star herself – and it’s his turn to watch her from the audience. But, she sadly notes, the only thing they share is a love of music. You can tell what a powerful voice Pugacheva had in the final section of the song when she starts belting out.
May 29, 2010 at 9:49 PM
Okay, Chat, you asked for it! Here’s another one, by the same duo: Pugacheva and Pauls. It’s actually from the same concert as “Maestro.” This song is called “Pesnya na bis,” which basically means “Encore.” It’s all very self-reflexive: a singer is performing her final song. She confesses that she’s exhausted and her voice is all but gone. Some things, she says, can never be done over: life and love most of all. “But I’m an artist,” she ads, “I will be repeat it one more time.”
May 29, 2010 at 10:10 PM
And here’s something less depressing. It’s a cover of the famous song “Dark Eyes.” It’s a live performance from 1989 in South Korea.
May 29, 2010 at 10:29 PM
BTW, when I say “South Korea” I mean “North Korea.” Oops. Not exactly the same, eh? That’s from Pyongang!
May 29, 2010 at 10:41 PM
You could have fooled me. I can pick out a very few cyrillic letters (like the ones that look sort of like greek letters). Otherwise, I would have not ever been the wiser.
May 29, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Okay, one last one for those who aren’t bored yet. This is “One Million Crimson Roses” done in 2009. The man on the piano is the same Raymond Pauls as in the videos above. At the end Pugacheva thanks him for writing immortal songs for her that will perhaps make her a little bit immortal too. He bows and walks off the stage and she and others start calling him back. The young man next to Pugacheva at the end is a well-known comedian and television host…and also Pugacheva’s current boy toy! (In the audience there are many famous Russian singers and actors.)
May 29, 2010 at 11:27 PM
The video above is truncated. Here’s the complete version: with Pugacheva’s boy-toy!
May 29, 2010 at 11:55 PM
Wonderful videos and fascinating stories, DYB! I have never heard of Pugacheva.
Here’s one more favorite from my growing-up days:
May 30, 2010 at 12:00 AM
Beata> I place Pugacheva in that pantheon of truly great artists like Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald and Maria Callas!
I’m not familiar with Donovan – although this song sounds familiar. Perhaps from a movie?
La-t-da @ 21> Wow, Johnny Cash does Trent Reznor?! Who would have ever thunk it. What’s next: Bruce Springsteen covers Marilyn Manson?!
May 30, 2010 at 12:59 AM
Maria Callas from Philadelphia….the first time I was truly moved by opers (I’m sure the actors helped with that)
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May 29, 2010 at 6:57 PM
I’m back for a coupla minutes. this is a GREAT thread. Antony and the Johnsons (and the ballet dancer, wow).
Yep, HT, that was the Lulu video I was talking about. And Sisterkenny, a Detroiter too huh?
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