RIP Buddy Miles

Here is a repost of a song I had on my page way back in late January of last year. Back then I put up the tune to mention how awesome Santana is (Carlos and the band itself), but now I'll put it up because the other guy on the tune just passed away yesterday.

Buddy Miles, a musician who worked with Hendrix, Carlos Santana, and many others (and in a note I did not know back then, was involved with The California Raisins!), passed away yesterday due to unknown causes at this time. To pay tribute to him I'll repost the smoking hot song he recorded live with Carlos known as Them Changes.

Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles-Them Changes (8.04 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Carlos%20Santana%20Buddy%20Miles-Them%20Changes.MP3

I'll have a new upload up on Monday night.

A Band That Shouldn't Be So "Rare"

Now, I will talk about a classic rock band that had only a few hits that you can still hear on the radio once in awhile, but from what few songs I've heard, they're awesome. In this case, I'm talking about Rare Earth, most famous for their version of the Motown classic Get Ready and I Just Want To Celebrate, a song that seems to represent their rock/funky mix. Now, it'd be obvious to post their album version of Get Ready (21 minutes long!) but that'd be too obvious, and plus I'm sure that won't be too hard to find if you look for it online. Instead, I'll mention another Motown cover they did, one that experienced some success. The album version is *only* 11 minutes long.

The tune in question is (I Know) I'm Losing You, which was originally made famous by The Temptations but has also been covered by the likes of Rod Stewart. All three are quality in their own ways; the original has a nice bite to it, with great lyrics (as you'd expect from the Motown song writers) and a classic theme of a guy fearing that he'll lose his lover to another man.

The Rare Earth version has an echo sound effect to the vocals, and the percussion/bass/guitar helps give it a trippy feel to it. With it being 11 minutes long there's of course ample opportunity for some jamming along the way. To me, it's a band that doesn't get its just due; I think their style is pretty cool and I'll try to find more from them, for my personal enjoyment, at least.

Rare Earth-(I Know) I'm Losing You (15.09 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Rare%20Earth-%28I%20Know%29%20I%27m%20Losing%20You.MP3

I'll be back Wednesday night with a new upload.

No, Not That Song, But Another One Instead

On my mashups blog, I posted a tune which included a BodyRockers song. They released the popular song I Like The Way (You Move) in 2005, not to be confused with the Outkast song.

On that very eponymous album, there was another single that was released, and I think it's just as catchy as their big hit. It's known as Round And Round, but it's not to be confused with the RATT song of the same name. It's a similar style to ILTW(YM), and has a nice guitar and bass part. If you liked ILTW(YM), then you should check this out.

BodyRockers-Round And Round (4.66 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Bodyrockers%20-%20Round%20And%20Round.mp3

I'll be back Saturday night, a day after my 27th birthday, to post a new song, which may or may not deal with the birthday.

If You're Alone On This Day...

Here is a different type of song. I'm more posting it due to its novelty value and how this version is rather obscure compared to the single that was released on radio and amazingly became the number one song in the land (but briefly). It doesn't really have anything to do with Valentine's Day... unless you're lonely and have no significant other, so you have to love yourself.

Chuck Berry is widely recognized as one of the most important figures (to state it mildly) in at least the genesis of rock 'n roll and how it morphed into a worldwide phenomenon in the mid and late 50's. Yet, he only had one song that was number one in the United States, and not only was it a novelty ditty from the mid 70's, but to state it bluntly, the song is about Chuck playing with his dick!

Yep, I'm talking about My Ding-a-Ling, a live song from his The London Chuck Berry Sessions album, where several songs were recorded in concert. The single version is of typical length, but the album version is 11 and a half (!) minutes long. If that sounds befuddling, note that the first few minutes are of Chuck telling the audience how to sing along to the chorus. The entire song is filled with double entendres, but the album version is especially jam-packed with these. Chuck comes off as a dirty old man, which should not be a surprise if you look at his criminal history and see that in more than one way, he was R. Kelly before the modern R&B star was even born!

Anyway, if nothing else the full version is an interesting novelty and if you burn a CD you can stick it on as the last song due to it eating up so much time. Me, while I realize it's a horrible way of representing Chuck's legacy (at least in terms of his music career) it is moderately amusing.

Chuck Berry-My Ding-a-Ling (15.94 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Chuck%20Berry%20-%20My%20Ding-A-Ling%20%28Full%20Version%29.MP3

My next post will be on Monday night.

I Get All The Girls

Here is another deal where I post one song on here and a mashup containing elements of that song then appear on my mashup blog.

As I've mentioned before, Real Radio 104.1, for it's multitude of faults, is still a great place for sometimes finding great songs on the "alternative" side that you otherwise wouldn't get to hear; now that O-Rock 105.9 (which had just a small bit of alternative bite to it) bit the dust last month and now is yet another station in the area that plays "lighter" tunes from the 60's through 90's, 104.1 and Real Rock 101.1 (which isn't really all that alternative, though) is the only game in town for that type of song.

A few months back I heard a rather interesting tune late one night where a dude, accompanied by an electro backing, talked about the girls he liked and then stated that he "got all the girls". I looked it up online and saw that the song was The Girls, by Calvin Harris from his I Created Disco album.

Now, I realize it's rather misogynistic to hear a guy bragging to a girl that he's likely to cheat on her because he's a roving cad who can't help himself, but another interpretation is that you're not supposed to take what the guy is saying seriously, and he's just bragging, either to try and impress a girl, or trying to impress his guy friends. No matter how you take the lyrics, it's an extremely catchy song that was wildly popular in the UK yet didn't do jack shit over in the States. At least you can still view its music video; another quality song from him was Acceptable in the 80's, which yes does a great job of paying tribute to that decade.

Calvin Harris-The Girls (7.21 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Calvin%20Harris%20-%20the%20girls.MP3

I'll be back a week from tonight with a new upload.

Promoting Promiscuousness... The 80's Rule

Today I did not want to write a whole lot. Sunday I went out to see the Super Bowl, and what I thought was the wrong result. Alcohol was consumed, and well… I will spotlight a cheesy (yet cool) 80's song that you may not have heard of before, although you'll probably know the artist. Hey, I think it's more interesting than trying to find something that fits Mardi Gras, as I think that whole thing is on the dopey side myself.

British singer John Parr is probably considered by many a one-hit wonder for his St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) from the movie of the same name. But, he had a song before that and I think it's quite a bit better.

The ditty is known as Naughty Naughty (from his and it's a pretty catchy pop-rock tune. I first heard the tune on the local station Max 98.3. I've enjoyed listening to the song since then but only a few days ago did I find the music video, and it's classic 80's.

Among other things, you have Parr, who looks like he's in his 40's but at least has a great head of hair. Then, you have the fashion, most of the women looking like your 3rd grade teacher, the effects… it's all great!

John Parr-Naughty Naughty (5.09 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/John%20Parr%20-%20Naughty%20Naughty.MP3

I'll be back Thursday night with-ironically-another song that deals with a guy bragging about being promiscuous yet you still think the chracter is not a complete scumbag.

Oh Yeah, And...

I apologize for not making this clear in the last post, but even though I mentioned that the low-quality songs I downloaded in 2004 were from the re-recording that Buckner & Garcia did in 1999, all three songs that I posted were from the original vinyl release in 1982 that people ripped directly from their record player to their computer. Again, those were were the original and not a re-recording. Sorry for not clarifying it; I have no clue why I didn't stress that.

Like I said, check back tomorrow for the newest uploads.

Paying Tribute To A Trio Of Classic Videogames

Since I've had some free time as of late, I decided to do a threesome of song uploads for today, due to the fact that all three are from the same album. The tunes pay tribute to Pac-Man, Frogger, and Centipede.

In case you haven't guessed it yet, all three songs are from the Buckner & Garcia album Pac-Man Fever, including the title track, which amazingly enough made it to the top 10 of the Billboard Charts! I'm sure that if any of you have heard any songs from that album, it'd be that one, but the entire album was songs devoted to videogames. Not too surprisingly, the final 5 songs sound all like one another, but the first three ones are all different, so I'll post them.

Way back when in late August of 2004, the Pac-Man Café opened up in Orlando. I ended up going there a few times; sadly, though, not enough people went there, and it closed down after less than a year. Boy am I still bitter about that! They had some good food there, although their fries were very spicy. Anyway, after first going there I happened to look online and stumbled across the entire Buckner & Garcia album; sure, it was low quality versions of the songs, but I still downloaded them. Later on I found out that they were re-recordings done because their then record company were (and still are) dicks about the whole matter.

Given some of the lyrics of the title track, I wonder if there's a hidden meaning to it… you know, as of in a sexual nature! Here's the song so you can maybe judge for yourself.

Buckner & Garcia-Pac-Man Fever (4.42 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Buckner%20And%20Garcia%20-%20Pac-Man%20Fever%20-%2001%20-%20Pacman%20Fever.mp3

The second song is something else; one lyric in it-which is repeated a few times-is "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy." I was like, "What in the world… is that a euphemism for masturbation?" It turns out its' a reference to an obscure 50's kids show, but I'm sure it was obscure even in 1982. Talk about random.

Buckner & Garcia-Froggy's Lament (3.11 MB, 128Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Buckner%20And%20Garcia%20-%20Froggy%27s%20Lament.mp3

The third song… back in 2004 the phrase "prog rock" came to mind, but that was totally a mistake on my part. One day it struck me, clear as a bell. I had no idea why I did not come up with it much sooner, as to me it's pretty obvious. I hope it's not just me, but doesn't Centipede sound almost exactly like Journey's Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)? Seriously! The most frightening thing is that if it was a ripoff, then it would be Steve Perry and gang who did so, as their album came out second. Talk about a terrifying thought.

Buckner & Garcia-Ode To A Centipede (6.34 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Buckner%20And%20Garcia%20-%20Ode%20to%20a%20Centipede.mp3

I'll be back Monday night with a new tune.