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Post by 88keys on Jan 5, 2016 23:45:08 GMT
In lieu of there being an Album Of The Week , at least for now, I'll do a Song Of The Week for you all to enjoy and analyze.
The Grays were a short-lived rock band comprising singer/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Jon Brion, Jason Falkner, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. They released only one album, the out-of-print but highly regarded Ro Sham Bo (1994) on Sony/Epic Records.
Their musical style featured careful composition married with pop-friendly melodies influenced by The Beatles but with a harder edge. Their songs also contained musical surprises such as atonal harmonies ("Is it Now Yet"), backwards vocals ("Everybody's World"), and dissonant ukelele-like solos ("Oh Well Maybe") mixed in with traditional rock instrumentation.
Falkner went on to record acclaimed solo albums,including Bedtime With The Beatles, which is an album of Beatles songs done as children's lullabies.He was also part of the 90's band Jellyfish, and played on albums by Paul McCartney, Dwight Yoakam, Glen Campbell, Beck, Jet, and Lisa Loeb. He contributed to the Jeff Lynne cover album Lynne Me Your Ears, doing a fantastic rendition of Do Ya.
This is probably their best known song, Very Best Years.
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Post by Chippa on Jan 6, 2016 20:51:28 GMT
Great song. As a fan of Jason Falkner's work, I've always followed his career quite closely. This song is quite unique, as the verses contain some chugging guitar riffs. Then a sitar, of all things, leads the song into a totally different direction with a very classic pop sounding chorus. Great melody, great harmonies. Instantly catchy.
By the way, here's an idea, in case we wanna do something different than Album of the Week-- how about Band or Artist of the Week? We each pick a band or artist, and feature a few of their songs for the other members to give a listen to. Just an idea to do something different.
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Post by dillwyn on Jan 6, 2016 21:32:08 GMT
Taking that idea a stage further....'What about a train of gold?'...one person comments and then puts up another track by the same artist for someone else to respond to ...
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Post by 88keys on Jan 7, 2016 2:10:08 GMT
Band/Artist Of The Week is a great idea! I like dillwyn's idea too.
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 7, 2016 8:41:53 GMT
Why don't we keep it flexible, then whoever's turn it is that week can choose what format they like, CD of the week or song of the week or band of the week etc etc.
This way will give variety and keep up interest in what has being chosen by the forum member that particular week.
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Post by dillwyn on Jan 7, 2016 12:33:00 GMT
Why don't we keep it flexible, then whoever's turn it is that week can choose what format they like, CD of the week or song of the week or band of the week etc etc. This way will give variety and keep up interest in what has being chosen by the forum member that particular week. fair enough
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Post by Platypus on Jan 7, 2016 13:13:59 GMT
I'd like to do an artist of the week!
And I enjoyed Very Best Years.
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 7, 2016 15:28:37 GMT
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 7, 2016 15:39:01 GMT
88keys I really enjoyed The Gray's Very Best Years, when I first heard the song I thought I knew it but i was wrong. It doesn't sound dated at all and I love the way it speeds up and slows down.
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Post by Chippa on Jan 7, 2016 18:12:14 GMT
Why don't we keep it flexible, then whoever's turn it is that week can choose what format they like, CD of the week or song of the week or band of the week etc etc. This way will give variety and keep up interest in what has being chosen by the forum member that particular week. Great idea, Horace! Let's do that! We can just call it "....Of The Week".
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Post by Platypus on Jan 8, 2016 2:30:29 GMT
Since I've never done one, I'd be happy to be the standby for next week. Got the artist picked out!
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 8, 2016 8:46:15 GMT
Since I've never done one, I'd be happy to be the standby for next week. Got the artist picked out! That's great if PowWow hasn't posted anything by Monday 11th then please jump in
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Post by 88keys on Jan 8, 2016 20:03:46 GMT
Horacewimp I love your idea of Song-Album- Artist of the week. Keep it flexible, it's more fun. That's why you're the moderator. Give yourself a raise!
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 9, 2016 21:11:03 GMT
OK 88keys, for my review, yes, that's a great song, great chords, and I really like the universal sentiment of the chorus. Very well done musical arrangement and performance, for sure. A strong and effective song. Thanks for jumping in and filling in for JLN! Will mark you down for the next open week. Jim
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Post by unomusette on Jan 10, 2016 0:14:40 GMT
I've not heard of The Grays before, although I do know of Jellyfish. I can imagine they were quite successful in America; they have a sort of retro/sixties sound which should appeal to a wide age range of music fans. What I like most about this song on first listen is the way you think it's going one way then it darts off in another direction. It has a great breezy feel to it too, with enough interesting stuff going on musically to raise it above the average pop song. The more you hear it the more it grows on you, 9 out of 10 from me
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