Imagine there’s no heaven / It’s easy if you try.

Most everyone knows that lyric, first couple of lines from the song that everyone remembers a certain man from Liverpool’s solo career for; but ya know, it’s funny, he just semi-borrowed that bit from an earlier track from his last band.

Imagine I’m in love with you / It’s easy cos I know.

The Beatles - I’ll Get You

A lot of pop love songs of pining are forlorn affairs, “you broke my heart”, “why him, not me”, “you treat me bad but I still can’t give you up”, so on and so forth. But the one thing these songs do that irks me is they throw the word around too loosely. To say you’re in love with someone without having any inkling if there is any chance of them reciprocating? That’s not being in love, that’s being enamored. Couples sometimes wait years to say those words to each other, so to just throw that out one sided, without there being the connection of a relationship is ridiculous, and that’s why this song is still so refreshing 40+ years on, because you rarely hear a track talk about it in this way.

Following the lines above you got:
I’ve imagined I’m in love with you / Many, many, many times before.

Right there it sets the tone for the track, he asks her to imagine it because he’s done so quite a few times himself. What if it goes as planned, something could start between them, could they reach that point? If they do will it be like he imagined?

The most brilliant part of the track is the bridge due to it showing that the use of a couple of words turns it from your standard love song of possession into one that has a lot more equal footing, respect wise.

Well, there’s gonna be a time / When I’m gonna change your mind / So you might as well resign yourself to me.

Any other writer may have gone with “When I’m gonna make you mine” and it still would have worked with the melody and rhyme. Though the next line shows how damn cocksure Lennon was when he wrote the lyric, you might as well realise it now, cos it’s bound to happen. There isn’t a sad bit about this song, the only mention of having the blues is him stating that he never has them when she’s on his mind for chrissakes!

Off the top of my head I can’t think of any other tunes like this, songs of pining that are entirely optimistic. There’s a reason why these guys are considered some of the best songwriters of all time; this B-side to “She Loves You” is definite proof of that.

Granted I am only on my fifth post I still want to preface this by saying that this right here is a rare occurrence, offering two different versions of a song, not primarily for a compare and contrast but because I just didn’t know which one I wanted you guys to listen to more.

Once again this is a song initially introduced to me by my friend Nomi (that’s two posts in a row Gnomes, you just scored a 49 HW hat-trick!), as does happen when we chat online she insisted on sending me some tunes, in this case a Ronnie Spector EP that Joey Ramone produced, she also mentioned that she saw her perform at the Metro in Chicago and Joey was on hand, sometimes I hate Nomi. The title of the EP was She Talks To Rainbows and the song we’ll be talking about today is the title track, which had previously appeared on the last Ramones album ¡Adios Amigos!

Ramones - She Talks To Rainbows
Ronnie Spector - She Talks To Rainbows

Before I begin, if you don’t know the name Ronnie Spector then shame on you.

Everyone knows (or should know) a person like this, not so much wrapped up in themselves but wrapped up in the world around them, but it’s a world that people don’t take the time to notice. These people are the ones that take great pleasure in the small things, rain falling from the sky, wind blowing just the right way, a bird twittering in its nest to its little ones. But what ol’ Joey is wondering is if this is not so much a means of happiness but an escape from what’s getting her down, is that why she won’t talk to him? He wants to help, but hey, what if she doesn’t need help? What if she’s not escaping from anything, but this is just her normal way of living? What if she gets her kicks out of trees like Joey does out of writing and playing music or getting loaded? But maybe cynisicm isn’t at play here, perhaps the fact that she drives him “outta my mind” makes him look for excuses as to why he can’t get through to her. It could be jealousy that she needs so little to be so fulfilled!

So the Ramones version sounds like a song of pining, but when Joey gave it to Ronnie she turned it into more of a song about a friend. Now this could just be because it’s a woman singing about another woman, but for me it’s more that I hear it in the vocal. Whereas Joey sounds a bit down and out, voice more gravely, bit of a monotonous melody which to me says “why can’t I figure this out” and talking about her, Ronnie sounds more impassioned, though using the third person she may as well be singing directly to the little lost girl.

Overall like I said above I can’t decide which version I’d choose over the other because they both speak to me in different ways, regardless it’s a damn fine song and I await your thoughts on if it’s a song of concern, pining, jealousy or just plain confusion.

But I will say this, the bass is the flippin’ business on Ronnie’s version, sorry C.J.

Every now and again you hear a song so sickeningly sweet that you’d like to think that even the most hardened criminal would take a listen and go “awwwww”. A few years back I discovered a song like that when my good friend Nomi made me listen to 39 Minutes of Bliss (In an Otherwise Meaningless World) by Caesars. Due to the inherent annoyance of “indie cred” or what have you I must say that this was well before the iPod Shuffle ad that featured “Jerk It Out”, while a good song in it’s own right this is the song that made me take notice.

Caesars - Only You

As I am always a sucker for a good surf guitar this track definitely grabbed my attention straight off the bat but then that first line hit:

Baby you got ears just like dumbo, it’s so sweet

From that lyric alone you can see where this song is headed, the man is listing off all these attributes of his love which many would see as a complete turn off, but he sees this all as part of her charm. Though one could question if these things don’t really matter then why keep a mental list of them? I say bollocks to that, he loves that she has all these traits, this is all just a part of what makes her who she is, what matters most is that he loves her unconditionally and it is truly mutual, after all, they’ve synchronised their heartbeats!

Funny thing to me about that bit of the song is it’s in a verse where it seems that he won’t be listing off any of her quirks, but instead what matters most, their love. Sure people gawk at them, but what’s it matter? They have each other, and really, that’s all he truly cares about; but the way he sounds more excited about how they have the same size in shoes than the fact that they have true love tells me he is ecstatic that not only is he with the (im)perfect woman for him, but they can also share footwear, I’m sure even Dino could attest, that’s amore.

March of ‘06, I was on spring break in north London and decided to take a side trip to Florence to visit a friend who was doing a semester abroad. Only flight I could find was out of Gatwick.

I do not like Gatwick.

Every time I’ve flown in or out of Gatwick there has always been a problem, this was no exception. My flight was supposed to leave at about 7 pm, cut to three hours later and there was still no word on when or if we would be taking off. As my fellow passengers and I were dealing with our mounting frustration I was reading the excellent Please Kill Me, and I can’t recall who it was, but someone had said that “to me the first punk song ever is ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ by The Stooges.” So thanks to the modern age I pick up my iPod, scroll through and see if I have any of The Stooges’ stuff, I had “Raw Power” and a song that was on the “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” soundtrack, as luck would have it Guy Ritchie decided to use the aforementioned track so I pop it on. This was the true beginning of my trip to Florence.

The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Now I don’t know if it was exhaustion and the resulting delirium, but this song hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m sure I had heard it before, especially since I had listened to the soundtrack in full multiple times, but how I just glanced over this track amazed me, because as soon as the track ended I had to listen to it again, and again, and again, and again. Suddenly I find that it’s about midnight, still no updates on the flight but at this point it didn’t matter, I was in a separate state, I could not stop listening to this track at all. Finally there was an announcement that the flight would not be leaving until the morning so we were to board the shuttle buses to lodging for the night, still had the track going strong on the ride to the B&B, while I grabbed a quick pint, while I drank the pint in my room, first thing the next day, ride back to Gatwick, on the flight to Pisa, on the bus from Pisa to Florence and my entire stay in Florence and all the way back to England. I’m sure you get the point.

So what is it about this track? For me it has to be one of the best executed uses of repetition I’ve ever heard. Whether it’s that guitar riff, the sole note on the piano or the bells, all going at the same pace. The piano/bells especially are what makes the song. I remember a few months after my trip I was at a house party in Wrigleyville, Chicago and the band started playing this but no one was at the keys! So after a few failed attempts I finally found the right note much to the delight of the band. Also the fact that the guitar solo doesn’t come in until the very end only to be faded out with the rest of the song; sometimes the fadeout is a cop out, but with this track I like to think that it still continues, but only they know the rest. That’s what a good fadeout should sound like, “Piss off! You’ve heard what we want you to hear, the rest is for us and only us.”

But this is not to take away from Iggy, his performance is flippin’ ace. When I listen to this I always picture him in the studio dancing like a loon and only coming up to the mic when he needs to do his bit. He’s very much proclaiming not love, but pure carnal lust, he wants to be used by this woman, he is at her bidding, but best of all he wants it in his room, he wants to be damn near a slave in the one place where people who sleep alone know they are in charge.

If this song doesn’t get you goin’ then I may question what exactly does.

As an added bonus here is an excellent version that Sonic Youth did with Iggy (plus it’s a rare gig where Mr. Pop is fully clothed!)

I’ve been living in New York City on and off for the past 4 years now and over the past couple of weeks I realised that this is a place that I truly want to live. After all the moving I’ve done I’m happy to say I am settled here. period. full stop.

This was cemented this past Saturday night when I was out with a friend. We had just left a bar and Jen says “Look down at your feet, they are in Manhattan! This is where we call home, how great is that?” The excitement she exuded with that statement definitely resonated over to me, because it’s true, I live in this city, why am I still thinking about “where next?” when this is where I need to be for stability and should be for all it has to offer.

So with that in mind I was thinking about what the best track to sum up what’s so great about this city would be. Sure there are the Sinatra standbys, many a punk track from the late 70s or let’s admit it, the countless tributes post 9/11, but one track hits the nail on the head for me every time.

John Lennon - New York City

What gets me about this song is it’s a personal ode to New York City, unlike many others that are just about what makes the city as a whole, sounding like an introduction to a tour book. With this you have Lennon sprinkling little bits that other people couldn’t really relate to on a personal level, but that’s the thing about this town, everyone has their story, and chances are they will talk about places or areas that you are familiar with but they have their own experiences with them. This touches on his marriage, his troubles staying in the country, bike rides in the village, a rambling preacher, etc. and it’s all sang with such fervor, talk to anyone who loves this city and they’ll tell you their own stories with the same intensity. The fact that this also features some of Lennon’s best fret work and a mean piano/horn section demands that you take notice of both the song and this city.

Now, this could all be said about any other town, everyone has some sense of pride for where they call home, but you’ll be hard spent to find a tune that captures the excitement that Lennon has for living in New York, so go on folks, take that as a challenge, write a tune that exemplifies not why your city is so great, but why it’s a great place to live.

I am going to give you guys the pleasure of hearing the greatest Motown song of all time, a pop masterpiece, perfection in every sense of the word. Sung by this lady right here:

Tammi Terrell - All I Do Is Think About You

“All I Do Is Think About You” was written by Clarence Paul, Morris Broadnax and Stevie Wonder. Wonder would record his own version years later for his “Hotter Than July” album which featured Michael Jackson on backing vocals, though this right here is what should be the definitive version, but like many Motown tracks this was inexplainably left in the vaults never to be heard until just a few years ago when a compilation called “Cellarful Of Motown” would be released. Tammi was known mainly for her work with Marvin Gaye, particularly “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Sadly she never really had a proper chance at a solo career, having died at only 24 from a brain tumour, which rumours point to the cause, or increase of, being ex-Temptations singer David Ruffin, her boyfriend at the time who was known to be quite abusive. Judging from this track and her Essential Collection it’s a damn shame to.

This song is just perfection through and through, the strings are lush without going over the top, the drums sound fantastic, the bells/vibraphone work in perfect harmony with the backing vocals, then there is Ms. Terrell. Sweet mother what a voice, she never has to stretch her vocal chords like Diana Ross or Aretha Franklin, instead she does the opposite which is just as impressive, she makes it sound effortless, yet unable to replicate. I’ve heard only one other female version of this, done by Brenda Holloway, and while it does have the same backing, her voice just doesn’t suit the song, the pacing is especially off, this had to have been tailor made for Tammi. Then there are the lyrics which are something else, to hear her yearn for this guy, it may seem like there is desperation, but never at an excessive amount. She isn’t saying that this guy better be with her because she wants to be with him so bad, but, well, I think these lyrics sum it up:

Baby just suppose I should happen to cross your mind
And by some chance a girl like me you’ve really been trying to find
Well let me tell you boy
Think of how exciting it would be
If you should discover you felt like me
If you should discover this dream is for two

Right there is the crux of the song, you may not be interested, but if you ever get an inkling you are then why not follow it?

Discovered this track about seven months ago, but have listened to it more times than any other song this year, and it has no signs of getting old.

Well done.