Take my whole life too . . .

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, according to William Congreve. But sometimes it's all that keeps me from running screaming over the cliffs like an enraged lemming.

Anyone who knows me or follows this blog knows that musically for me it's all about the melody. And one of the loveliest melodies I know is this song, about which I wrote before: I Can't Help Falling In love With You when I was contributing to Kevin Hayden's American Street. Here's the post:

Certain melodies sound timeless: classical, pop, doesn’t matter. How many of you felt, when you heard “With or Without You” by U2, that you had heard it before . . . it somehow reminded you of something.
What it reminded you of is a classic melody, reworked enough to be different, yet standing on its own as a unique, wonderful song.
Another such melody is “Can’t Help Falling In Love“, first recorded by some guy named Elvis:

“Can’t Help Falling in Love,” by George Weiss, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, is a pop song based on “Plaisir d’amour” by Jean Paul Egide Martini. It was rewritten for the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, starring Elvis Presley.

I won’t bother posting any videos of Elvis singing it. Like all of his repertoire, toward the end he did it too fast and jivey. But several other artists covered the song, including some unlikely ones.
Pearl Jam recorded the song for a fan club CD, and played it live often. Here’s a live recording of them respectfully covering “Can’t Help Falling in Love”:

Here’s the original version, not a real video, but still…:

And for those who want the most beautiful recording of the precursor, “Plasir d’amour”, here’s the great Greek singer Nana Mouskouri singing her timeless version of the song from her 1976 “Passport” album. Melody is the most important part of music to me. Oh, and this song is from the afore-mentioned Martini’s opera “Annette et Lubin“, written in 1789:

It swells my heart that people keep finding this wonderful song, and it humbles me that I find older versions that do it justice.

In the first category, here's Ingrid Michaelson:



In the latter category, here's the late Klaus Nomi:



More about that version in a minute.

And to show that younger people still appreciate the beauty of great music, here's the best version I've heard in a long time, by the French group Revolver:



Notice the music at the beginning of the Klaus Nomi performance? It's probably the melody that was the precursor of both the aforementioned songs. One of the finest melodies of all time, its' Beethoven's Pathetique. This music grabs my heart every time I hear it:

You take me the way I am

We just got back from The Troubadour in West Hollywood, heard some good music. The reason we went was to hear Ingrid Michaelson, about whom I wrote a few weeks ago:

You know the song from the Old Navy commercial? You know the one I mean, that you can't get out of your head? It's Ingrid Michaelson singing "The Way I Am".

Well, if you watched the YouTube I put up last time, live on TV, you already have an idea how good she is live. And I have to say she's really that good. Effortless, on-pitch vocals, easy yet confidant stage presence, and really good songs. We though it would be her whole band, but instead it was Ingrid, her talented guitarist Allie Moss, and an upright bass player on "The Way I Am".

Here's a live video of her, on the annoying Carson Daly's show:



And here is a fan video in a club, where you can see her interaction with the crowd as she conducts them on their handclap performance:



Very enjoyable show. I had tried to get in touch with her, I wanted to have a little sit-down and talk about the career path for a musician outside the traditional record company path. But sadly, my emails went un-answered. Oh well, she's still really good.

She was the opening act, 2nd up was Melee, and the headliner was Matt Nathanson. We left partway through his set because the mixer had so much kick drum in the mix both our chests hurt. And no, we're not too damned old; I loves me some kick drum. But this was like a hammer blow to the sternum. His music and band were good, but he also annoyed us by gratuitously swearing every other word. Dude, it's been done, by musicians whose shoes you're not worthy to shine. Get over yourself.

Here's a publicity photo of the stage at the Troub:


And just for fun, here's my friend Jimmy Messina onstage at the Troubadour with Rusty Young in Poco, around 1970:


Good times.

Update from Jim Messina via email:

I love that picture of Randy Meisner and myself playing in Poco playing at the Troubadour. I am playing my Gretsch and it looks like he is playing my bass, the one I played in Buffalo Springfield.

Cuz I love the way you call me baby

I don't usually do plain ol' music posts. I have my special "Under-appreciated Guitarists" series, and few specific, usually guitar-related others, but normally I leave the music posts to John Crooks & Liars Amato, skippy, and tbogg.

But I have to do this one. You know the song from the Old Navy commercial? You know the one I mean, that you can't get out of your head? It's Ingrid Michaelson singing "The Way I Am".

Here's a live version, stripped to one acoustic guitar and backup singer, and Ingrid. And it's even more stunning than the album version. It proves music doesn't need a big busy production to be wonderful:



This talented woman has no record deal, yet she's had her music played on Gray's Anatomy, has played live on several TV shows, and is currently touring the US. Here's her MySpace page.

We're witnessing the new paradigm for music marketing. Take heed, kids.


Update: To everyone stopping by from Scout.com and Yahoo Answers, thanks. I write about politics, and also an insiders view of the music world, where I work in recording studios.

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Thanks!