Comments on: MP3 of the week – ‘Vine St.’

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 13 May 2004 09:40:42 +0000

I wonder if there are any other Newman versions of the song which include a “tape that we made” at the beginning. I’ve only heard the Newman demo from the boxed set, which doesn’t have it. Did he write something for that part? Was this clever trick his intention the whole time? If not, I guess VDP would have been the first to do it then, with Harpers and Nilsson following, but I’m not sure when Harpers recorded it.

Incidently, I believe that the “tape” on Van Dyke’s version is an actual older recording of folk songs he made with a guy named Steve Young (who is credited on the album as playing the instrument “folk”) They are playing the traditional folk song “Black Jack Davey” covered by Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal and the White Stripes, among others…

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:36:35 +0000

I should have also noted that the 3rd Harpers Bizarre album, “The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre” has a version of “Vine Street” on it. “Vine Street” itself is the second half of a medley with their song “Bye Bye Bye.” So “Bye Bye Bye” serves as the “tape that we made.” Craze.

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:32:08 +0000

The Van Dyke Parks version is pretty great as a example of Van Dyke’s “Holy Shit! Can I over-arrange a song or what?” skillz. The first Harper’s Bizarre album also has both Newman and Van Dyke Parks all over it, over-arranging and just being showy in general. I love it. In regard to the song-within-song thing, “Ballad of Dorothy Parker” by Prince has a Joni Mitchell reference in which he sings “Help me I think I’m falling in love again” for a second. Does that count? Sure.

By: Andy Baio

Andy Baio — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:00:21 +0000

Man, this is one of my favorite albums of all time. I've never liked Randy Newman's voice much, but his songwriting and piano playing both shine in Nilsson's covers. "Love Story" and "The Beehive State" are two other highlights on an amazing album. As for song-in-songs, the first one that leaps out at me is the breakdown in Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight." The acoustic song briefly breaks into an electric slide-guitar number, that sounds like it's being played on a cheap transistor radio. There's an article about various song-within-song devices in this article from a folk music magazine. And here's another thread about it, but most of these are simply allusions rather than embedded songs.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 23:13:01 +0000

You didn’t mention anything about Harry, so I thought I would. Nilsson is, in my opinion, the most criminally overlooked singer in the music world. He was great and he was rather eccentric musically. If you don’t know his stuff, you won’t regret picking some up.

By: jason

jason — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:23:19 +0000

Two tenuously associated comments:

1. I remember once long ago sitting in the Allen’s basement, I made the claim that I thought Eric’s Trip did a better job with “Laying Blame” than Sloan did. My comment was met with icy stares and verbal abuse from all parties present.

2. I’ve always been a fan of Cursive’s “Burst and Bloom” which lyrically acknowledges that the EP is merely a marketing scheme to raise awareness for the next LP

One random unassociated comment:

I hate how this comment window won’t open any bigger, so I can’t see everything that I have written at once. What gives?