21 May 2014 (Wednesday)

As the quarter winds down attendance is dwindling... only 4 people came today.

I chose the first song. "How Soon Is Now (live)" (video, lyrics, song info) "covered" by Johnny Marr (info) I had played it in my car on the way to class. I love the video because it's pure rock music energy in the room. And I especially like the part at the 3:15 minute mark where Johnny Marr de-tunes his guitar to make a low sound but comes back to playing the song as usual: That takes a lot of confidence to do live -- and in front of millions of people on TV!!

One of the students mentioned that the next day (22 May) is Morrisey's (info) birthday. (Morrisey used to play in The Smiths (info) with Johnny Marr; they wrote "How Soon Is Now" together.)

Since we were now talking about The Smiths and Johnny Marr, one of the students said he learned to respect Johnny Marr very highly as a guitarist, especially for his rhythm playing, by finding the video for "Bigmouth Strikes Again" (video, lyrics, song info) on YouTube as he was looking for guitar videos.

Speaking of rhythm guitar playing, I showed a clip of Keith Richards (info) playing my favorite of his solo songs, "Struggle" (video, lyrics, song info) on Saturday Night Live in the '80's. What I like about this video is how much his body is feeling the rhythm of the song while he plays it.

The next song chosen was a live cover of the Beatles song "Help" (video, lyrics, song info) by Noel Gallagher (info) of Oasis. The student who chose it says he likes how Noel highlights the emotion of the song by arranging it differently. If I remember correctly he said he likes this version better than the Beatles's original.

A long discussion followed about the Oasis split and whether the two bands that came out of it, Beady Eye (info) or Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (info) is more like the original spirit of Oasis. Our Oasis expert says they are different but each is equally the spirit of Oasis. 

The next song had nothing to do with any British music: it was "Hotel California" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Eagles (info), a classic *American* band. The student who chose the song chose it because she thought of it when she recently went to California and was driving on the highway there. She also thought about it because two weeks ago we had talked about Stairway To Heaven and both these two songs have long guitar solos.

I was telling the students that Americans have a love/hate relationship with The Eagles. I am guessing 70% of Americans love The Eagles, but the other 30% hate The Eagles. I said I don't like the band and a student said, "Why not?" and I blurted out, "I don't like hippies because they are so naive". One of the students said, "I have the perfect song for you": "Death Of A Disco Dancer" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Smiths (info). Indeed, what great lyrics! And great music, too!

It made me think of another song from that era called "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love & Understanding" (video, lyrics, song info) by Elvis Costello (info).

As you can see, we only made it one song by Americans today before going back to The Smiths and Brits...

Speaking of hippies, one student said Neil Young has created a new audio system called Pono and got a lot of older musicians to support it in the product video. 

For some reason we played another song I have been listening to this week, "Warrior Lord" (video, lyrics, song info) by Poliça (info), but I don't remember how that song came up.


With that class was over for the day/week. Only two more classes to go this quarter! :-(  For the next class the theme is "Songs about your time in Seattle." This could be a song which describes the time or it could be one which has the same main feeling you have about Seattle. (Sneak preview: since 4 June will be our last class, the them for that one will naturally be "Goodbye" songs.)