Earlier this summer, NPR featured Glen Hansard in its Tiny Desk Concert series, where you get Hansard alone with his guitar up close. Hansard, who recently released his first solo CD after recording with The Frames and with Markéta Irglová, has a great voice that comes through in this acoustic set. Of course, you may know him from his role in the charming film Once (2006) with Irglová.
So check out this set of Hansard and his guitar, where he plays the songs: “Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting,” “Bird Of Sorrow,” “Come Away To The Water,” “Lucia,” and “The Song Of Good Hope.”
Hansard’s new CD — Rhythm and Repose (2012) — features four of the songs he plays above.
What do you think of Hansard’s tiny desk concert? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On September 19, 1973, singer-songwriter Gram Parsons died from too much morphine and tequila in Room 8 of a motel room in California. It was not the end for Parsons, or at least his body, which then went on an odd journey.
Parsons’ Body
Before Parsons’s death, Parsons and his road manager Phil Kaufman made a pact. They agreed that for whichever one of them died first, the other would take the friend’s body to Joshua Tree National Park, where they would cremate the body.
So, after Parsons’s death, Kaufman and Michael Martin, a roadie, then stole the body and coffin. They took the coffin while it had been en route to a burial in Louisiana.
Kaufman and Martin then drove the body to Joshua Tree National Park. There, they poured gasoline on the coffin and set it on fire with a match.
But Gasoline is not enough to cremate a body, so some of Parsons’s body survived the burning. After Kaufman and Martin were arrested, the charred remains of Parsons were buried in New Orleans.
Because at the time stealing a body was not a crime in California, Kaufman and Martin were fined for stealing property: the coffin. Today, though, one may still pay respect to Parsons at Joshua Tree.
Grand Theft Parsons
The story of the body theft was told in the movie Grand Theft Parsons (2003), starring Johnny Knoxville. It has been awhile since I saw the film, but I remember being a bit disappointed by it.
The story’s focus on the few days seemed stretched out for a movie. And maybe I was disappointed that the movie did not tell us more about the most interesting person related to the story: Gram Parsons.
Rotten Tomatoes has a 44% critics rating and 53% audience rating for Grand Theft Parsons. But I suspect other fans, like me, will still want to see the film.
“Streets of Baltimore”
I do not know whether or not Parsons would be unhappy that his remains are in New Orleans. But one of his classic songs, “Streets of Baltimore,” is about a another journey and going some place you do not want to be.
In “Streets of Baltimore,” the singer recounts leaving Tennessee on the train for Baltimore because his love wants to live in the city. He gets a factory job and walks the streets with her. But he soon realizes she loves the city lights more than she loves him.
So in the end, the singer takes the train back to Tennessee alone: “Now I’m a going back on that same train that brought me here before / While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore.”
There is little video footage of Parsons, but check out this rare grainy recording of him singing with Emmylou Harris.
It is sad that there is so little video footage of Gram Parsons. Not only did he predate the music video era, but much of his fame came after his short life ended. So, he was never a regular on television.
Even in this grainy black and white video of “Streets of Baltimore,” you can still tell he is a superstar, though. And wherever his ashes and remains are, his music resides in our souls.
What is your favorite Gram Parsons song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Arrr, matey, September 19 is “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Now I am not one to jump on a trend, but the holiday gives one a good excuse to watch George Harrison talk like a pirate. And to get a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme stores, which are giving a free doughnut to anyone talking like a pirate on September 19, 2012.
I wish George Harrison were still around to get himself one of those doughnuts. As the former Beatle shows in this 1975 Rutland Weekend Television sketch with Eric Idle, the man knows how to talk pirate.
My favorite part is how Harrison works the famous Monty Python “The Pirate Song” into “My Sweet Lord,” starting at around the 30-second mark. Check it out.
May all you landlubbers and sea dogs have a safe and happy Talk Like a Pirate day. What are you doing for Talk Like a Pirate Day? Leave your two cents in the comments.
With Bob Dylan releasing his 35th album recently, we think of the man as a legend, perhaps walking among the gods of ancient Greece or Rome. So, today we look at two clips of Dylan among the classic structures of Rome and Greece.
Well, actually, the Roman architecture in the video below is just a copy because he is in Las Vegas. Check out Pawn Stars‘ Chumlee tracking down Dylan in Vegas for an autograph on one of his classic albums.
The following clip, though, is set in Athens, Greece. Plus, it includes music. Check out Dylan joining another legend, Van Morrison to play Morrison’s “Crazy Love” as they overlook Athens.
What do you think of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison together? Leave your two cents in the comments.
I have so many songs tucked away on my iPod, sometimes while I listen to the songs shuffle in the background as I do my work, I hear a song mixed among the old friends that I don’t remember or one I did not connect to earlier and I have a new discovery. Today, I found a song by an artist who chooses to no longer make music. Today’s new discovery is Sinéad Lohan’s “Whatever It Takes.”
The song came up on my iPod as part of a collection of acoustic songs from various artists. But here is the video for the original version, which is from Lohan’s No Mermaid (1998) album. I love the odd little dancing marionnette that you see around the 1:08 mark.
Lohan is from Cork, Ireland, and in the 1990s was a rising star on both sides of the ocean. After her 1995 debut album, Who Do You Think I Am?, did well in Ireland, she made her second album, No Mermaid — which contains “Whatever It Takes” — in New Orleans. The title track of No Mermaid was used in the film Message in A Bottle, and Joan Baez covered it. Another creative person put Lohan’s No Mermaid song to scenes from The Little Mermaid even though the song was not used in that film.
Lohan also created an excellent cover of Bob Dylan’s “To Ramona.”
Despite plans for a third album, after Lohan had her second child in 2001, she decided to devote herself full time to motherhood. Last reported, she was living with her husband John, an accountant, and their two children near Leap in County Cork. Around 2005, she made a guest appearance with Phil Coulter in the Opera House in Cork. But that’s it. She no longer even has a website devoted to her music.
Wikipedia reports that Lohan in 2004 began working on a new album, and another website claims that new album was completed in 2007. But such an album has yet to be released.
In 2011, her former manager Pat Egan explained to The Irish Timesthat while touring around 2000, Lohan “suddenly decided she didn’t want to do it any more. She never really liked the music business, and wasn’t that great doing interviews.”
Although it is a loss to the music world that Lohan no longer releases new music, we cannot complain that Lohan chose family over creating more music. We know from another Lohan and another Sinead how fame can un-ground a person.
Perhaps the reason the song “Whatever It Takes” resonates so much is its honesty. In the song, Lohan is perhaps telling us what type of life she would like. She sings that she will do what she needs to be fulfilled without worrying about legacy or fans.
Whatever it takes you to believe it, That’s all right with me; Take this morning in my kitchen, Or whatever that helps you to believe; You will find me down by the river, Getting high on my mortality; I’ll be holding hands with nameless beauty, Or whoever wants to stand next to me.
Whether or not the we ever get to hear new music from Lohan, I hope Sinéad Lohan is somewhere singing for her children, high on mortality holding hands with nameless beauty. Thanks for the music.
