Thursday, March 10, 2011

Top Fives

In an effort to combat lameness of this MDM, I've decided to use my music-thinking-about muscles. The criteria is who do I want to sing me "Happy Birthday" when I'm on my death bed (assuming I die in a bed on my birthday).

Top Five Female Voices:

1. Karen O. - Her version of "Worried Shoes" on the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack is really all I need to hear. She has this kind of twang or something that I just totally fall for everytime.

2. Nina Simone - I remember seeing her in Ann Arbor in 2000 with my not yet wife and it was right before the Bush/Gore election. During Mississippi Goddamn she belted out: "Everybody knows about Bush/Goddamn" I'll never forget it. She really knew how to say goddamn.

3. Lykke Li - She has a kinda quirky voice, but still powerful in different ways. Good phrasing and soulfulness. Sounds original to me.

4. Marianne Faithfull - Mainly the later years for her. I know it's probably from smoking and drinking and stuff that her voice got all raspy. But it really fits her material. Favorites are Broken English, Sex with Strangers and Last Song from Before the Poison. Check out her version of John Lennon's Working Class Hero.

5. Victoria Legrand - She's the Beach House singer. I know she's really mellow but that's what I like. She calms me down.


Honorable Mentions: P J Harvey, Mavis Staples, Neko Case, Elizabeth Cotten, Stevie Nicks

Top Five Male Voices:

1. Harry Nilsson - Just so smooth. The music pours of of him. Or at least it used to, he's dead now.

2. Bob Dylan - His voice is a great mystery. I think he sang all shitty and gravelly on purpose and it killed his other wise normally sweet and sugary vocal cords, leaving him where he has been for the last 10-15 years, all croaky. If you listen to any of the stuff he made in high school, he sounds just like he does on Nashville Skyline. That's his real voice. Weird, huh. Columbia Records used to have a slogan: Nobody Sings Dylan like Dylan. Kinda says it all.

3. Johnny Cash - His voice from the 90's onward is perfect.

4. Jeff Mangum - His voice is just so...hip.

5. Leonard Cohen - He's really the only one who does what he does. There is so much precision. You can follow every word.

Honorable Mentions: Neil Young, Colin Blunstone, Ray Davies, Joe Strummer, Scott Walker

Thoughts? Disagreements?

Whatever a-holes.

I'm out

5 comments:

  1. i second the karen o and leonard cohen votes. but i'd die any day to hear tom waits sing to me on my last day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the sweet diversion. Karen O, yes. And Nina Simone: great tale. I'll assume that one isn't fabricated.

    Truly, I like all your picks. Also, Prince would be pretty fun to go out to. And M. Ward would do a husky, soothing rendition of the birthday song.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, Tom Waits would have been a good one. He could easily be in my honorable mentions. I also feel bad for forgetting Shane Macgowan.

    I noticed that all my male singers are really old, save for Jeff Mangum. My female singers tend to be younger. Three out of the top five are younger than me. What does this say about me? Am I a perv? Do I feel threatened by men that are closer to my age? Am I a perv who is threatened by men close to my age?

    Sarah, why would you doubt my Nina Simone story. It seems fairly probable to me. Not like the time I convinced Bruce that I met Morgan Freeman.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good picks, Andy. And, yes, you are an insecure perv. No doubt about it. As am I. Would you like to get together later for a beer and feel threatened by each other and talk pervy about younger women? Good times.

    My topsies would have to be Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye...or maybe an old bluesman: Son House could sing me a modified version of "Death Letter" perhaps (e.g., "I got a letter this morning/ Well, you know just what it said/ It said 'Happy Birthday' on yer death bed...").

    As for womenfolk, I would probably pick Aretha, Etta James, Dusty Springfield, Tracey Thorn, or maybe Karen Peris of The Innocence Mission...Her voice just calms me down.

    Sarah, I can't vouch for the actual quote, but I can vouch that Andy and Jane saw Ms. Simone in Ann Arbor back in the day. We need to keep that guy honest.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I feel like Leonard Cohen could really milk the irony out of the "and many more" tagline.

    Marvin Gaye would be great.

    ReplyDelete