54. Grand Central Station. Mary Chapin Carpenter

Dr S reporting for duty!

Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of my favorite artists -- she's kind of an intellectual country singer, and sings a wide variety of stuff. Zydeco. Traditional sentimental country duets like Not Too Much to Ask (with Joe Diffie). Good old fashioned folk. Pissed-off anthems like He Thinks He'll Keep Her and its flipside, The Hard Way. An entire album, Time*Sex*Love, that is flecked through with Beatles influences and includes a song featuring the "mind the gap" announcement from the London underground.

I think this is one of her best songs. Simple, deliberate guitar that gradually gives way to more orchestration and then back again. Slightly shaky voice. And the simple first person story of a worker from the World Trade Center "pile" who stops at Grand Central Station every night as he leaves work to let the dust on his clothes --all that's left of those who were killed-- float off his clothes onto the platforms and trains heading home.

Got my work clothes on, full of sweat and dirt
All this holy dust upon my face and shirt
Heading uptown now, just as the shifts are changing
To Grand Central Station
I got my lunch box, got my hard hat in my hand
I ain't no hero, mister, just a working man
And all these voices keep on asking me to take them,
To Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station

In the care of most other people it would be completely maudlin. But with her, it's just heartbreaking.

55. Sun King. The Beatles

The Beatles are my favourite group ever. I started listening to them at an early age and gradually collected all their albums. I'm pretty sure I like singing harmony because of them. Abbey Road is one of my favourite Beatles albums, especially side 2 (which I guess doesn't exist since the advent of CDs). I got my Abbey Road album in the summer of 1977 at Jack's in Jacksonville, Illinois while visiting my grandmother. I played it over and over on her stereo, which was one of those old-fashioned ones in a walnut (or some fancy wood) cabinet, while thinking about Luke Skywalker (we had gone to see Star Wars in Montreal on our way to Grammie's). (Later I realized that Luke Skywalker was kind of pathetic compared to Han Solo.) Anyway, I like the way side 2 of Abbey Road kind of runs together. This is just a snippet of it, but I love the mellow harmonies, the crickets, the faux-Italian, etc. I assume it's faux-Italian; to tell you the truth, I don't even know all the lyrics to all the Beatles songs - some of them sound like gobbledegook to me and I just sing along phonetically. I think at the end of this they say "cake-and-eat-it."

56. On the Appian Way. Respighi

Last year we got some tickets to the Toronto Symphony. I chose this concert because I recognized Respighi (they used to play stuff from his Ancient Airs and Dances on CBC2 a lot, but that's really all I knew of him). We had great seats at the back of the orchestra; the sound was wonderful. They opened the concert with Italiana (Ancient airs and dances, Suite No.3). I thought it was absolutely beautiful. Later in the concert, they played The Pines of Rome, four short pieces. The opening piece is supposed to portray children playing among the pines of Villa Borghese; it's striking because it's written all in the treble clef (even the parts for low instruments like the cello and bassoon). This makes the sound quite brilliant and even shrill, for which reason Dr S did not like it. She didn't like On the Appian Way, either, for the same reason that I do like it; the sound crescendos gradually until it's blasting out (when the orchestra played, the trumpets were standing up in the choir stalls). This is a scene of an army (I'm thinking an ancient Roman army) approaching from the distance, coming closer until they're right on top of you. Although it starts off kind of menacing, it ends up being a very triumphal, even happy-sounding piece (so it's not very politically correct). Boy, did that Respighi write some evocative music!

57. Guess Who I Saw Today. Carmen McRae

When Dr S and I moved to Hamilton (aka The Armpit of Canada) to go to McMaster (aka Hell on Earth), my dad made us four mixed tapes of jazz and blues. This song (in a different version) was on one of them. It's a good song because it tells a story, and you don't get climax until the very last word.

58. Buonaparte. Keith Murphy

Keith is an old friend; we first met at Y camp over 30 years ago and bonded over singing and ukulele-playing. He's married to Becky Tracy (song #84). When we visited them in Vermont last year, Keith gave us a copy of his CD. This song is based on a shape note song (which I do not absolutely understand, so I won't try to explain it); Keith wrote the third and fourth verses. It's a very pleasant melody and I like his voice. If you enjoy this and are interested in getting a copy of the CD, go to BlackIsleMusic.com.

59. Dead. They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants is a very strange band with very strange but catchy songs. This is a good one. To my knowledge, I never made my younger brother have to be my personal slave, but it's a good line.

I returned a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the expiration date.
I came back as a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the date stamped on myself.

Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket, and was everybody dancing on the casket?

Now it's over I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want
Or, I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do.

I will never say the word "procrastinate" again; I'll never see myself in the mirror with my eyes closed.
I didn't apologize for when I was eight and I made my younger brother have to be my personal slave.

Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket, and was everybody dancing on the casket?

Now it's over I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want
Or, I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do.

So I won't sit at home anymore
and you won't see my head in the window
and I won't be around ever anymore
and I'll be up there on the wall at the store.

I returned a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the expiration date.
I came back as a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the date stamped on myself.

Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket, and was everybody dancing on the casket?

Now it's over I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want
Or, I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do.

60. In the Beginning. Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland is best-known for works like Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring, and a great arrangement of Shall We Gather By the River. I love all of those, but I thought I'd share something you may never have heard before, In the Beginning, which is Genesis, chapters 1 and 2:1-7. Our choir sang the first bit of this piece one January when the lectionary was on Genesis. We sang only the first bit because the piece (at least this recording of it) is almost 16 minutes long (don't worry - I'm only giving you the first two days here!). I think our choir director said we'd never be able to do it because we'd surely go flat in a piece that long (since it's a capella, or acapulco, as he likes to say). I notice that in this recording, the mezzo-soprano soloist (not named in the liner notes, but on the CD itself, Catherine Denley is listed as a soloist) goes flat pretty quickly but somehow the choir manages to maintain their pitch. It's kind of neat word-painting, etc. with those cool Copland harmonies. At the end of each day the choir sings very quietly: "And the evening and the morning were the first (second, etc.) day." Here are the words for the bit you're listening to:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven.
And the evening and the morning were the second day.



Not the kind of thing you listen to on your ipod on your way to work, but worth a listen sometime.