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very fine videos from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s & 00s
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ft. the beatles, aretha franklin, neil young, dr. dre, serge gainsbourg, duke ellington, the kinks, jimi hendrix, pavement, the clash, smog, the smiths, al green, the rolling stones, cat power, dusty springfield, yo la tengo, antony, wilco, elvis, talking heads, elliott smith, r.e.m., ray charles, otis redding, the monochrome set, randy newman, the cure, gillian welch, queen, stevie wonder & more
see the archives & a random post
please also visit dub anthology and also the incomplete harvey
"mtv makes me want to smoke crack." -beck
"i just happen to be here, and it's okay." -caetano veloso
"sing a simple song but keep the swing strong." -de la soul
"think straight, keep a clean plate." -joanna newsom
"keep a clean nose, watch the plain-clothes." -bob dylan
"keep your feet warm, but keep your clothes on." -harry nilsson
"don't you fumble, just be humble." -lee 'scratch' perry
"it took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, nightlife. most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom." -charles mingus
"think about something else. was art tatum talented?" -shoot the piano player
"she had a chihuahua named carlos that had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind." -tom waits
"he had a huge room with nothing in it except this huge vast hammond organ, right next door to the police." -david bowie
"he's got a mind like a sewer, and a heart like a fridge" -elvis costello
"you can't hold the hand of a rock 'n' roll man." -joni mitchell
"lou's jukebox spun for love and many other things, too: beauty, pain, history, courage, mystery" -laurie anderson
"hey there, hey now, well, you can make a pacemaker blink, easy thing, make a man's heart go bibbity boom. -john cale
"i've still got things inside me, sad things, happy things, that people don't know about." -loretta lynn
"to try to maximize the relationship of listening to a record through promotion is like experiencing driving a car by reading about stimulus programs." -bonnie 'prince' billy
"too much cheesecake too soon! old money's better than new" -roxy music
"my mother used to tell me about vibrations. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death." -brian wilson
"i could even find it in my heart to love mike love." -belle & sebastian
"i'm going to boogie my scruples away." -lowell george
"i'm a lunatic, and you are so super cool." - george jones
"i'm an idiot for you." -iggy pop
"i'm good and i'm bad and i'm happy and i'm sad and i'm lazy" -willie nelson
"i drive a rolls-royce, cause it's good for my voice." -t.rex
"i mean every letter in the words in the sentences of my quotes." -lil' wayne
"lyrics choochoo from my mouth like locomotion." - pato banton
"i'm dealing in rock and roll. i'm not a bonafide human being." -phil spector
"phil approached me with a bottle of kosher red wine in one hand and a .45 in the other, put his arm around my shoulder and shoved the revolver into my neck and said, 'leonard, i love you.' i said, 'i hope you do, phil.'" -leonard cohen
"they'd whisper at each other and look at phil and whisper at each other. finally this lady, tanked, comes over to phil and says, 'alright, sonny, what's your problem?' and he said, 'premature ejaculation, what's yours?'" -tom wolfe
"i bite my nails and if that fails i go get myself stoned, but when i do i think of you and head myself back home." -gram parsons
"i would say groucho marx, to name one thing, and willie mays, and the second movement of the jupiter symphony, and louis armstrong's recording of potatohead blues, swedish movies, naturally. sentimental education by flaubert, marlon brando, frank sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by cezanne, the crabs at sam wo's, tracy's face." -woody allen
"where have you been all my life?" -emmylou harris, to my brother tommy
brian eno songs that will make good book titles for my 10-volume memoir, in order: here he comes, baby's on fire, golden hours, brutal ardour, taking tiger mountain, events in dense fog, through hollow lands, some of them are old, everything merges with the night, dead finks don't talk
ry cooder albums that every man should own: into the purple valley, boomer's story, paradise and lunch
"really, we don't want people twiddling their goatees over our stuff." -radiohead
thelonious monk's middle name: sphere
#1 song on the #1 album (tie): happiness is a warm gun, while my guitar gently weeps, long long long
"the only word is love." -john lennon
"i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. and mother. and god." -johnny cash
"the moon is clear, the sky is bright, i'm happy as the horse's shite." -the pogues
"i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead. -pete seeger
"chuck berry isn't merely the greatest of the rock and rollers, or rather, there's nothing mere about it. say rather that unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports chuck berry as well as it does marcel proust, we might as well trash it." -robert christgau
mashable says about us: "expect the unexpected with this awesome gem. groovy." and 33 1/3: "nice to have someone steer me in a worthwhile direction"
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the olden days: 2008 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 2009 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 2010 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 2011 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 2012 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 2013 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d.
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#910: the clash – straight to hell (1983, live)
i herby declare march to be straight to hell month in honor of m.i.a.’s paper planes turning four years old and straight to hell coming back to life as it’s own song, and the best song in the history of all global time.
#838: the clash - safe european home (1978)
any wall street report subtitled the debt crisis in the european monetary union as seen by a 9-year old should not be read without listening to the clash. and while it’s the work’s exceedingly detailed europe-in-legos map that’s getting the attention, what earns it the late-70s/early-80s punk points is a first-page (and footnoted!) reference to berlin alexanderplatz by poor old rainer werner fassbinder. he is probably doing post-marxist summersaults in his early grave.
note: the video was replaced with a finer european home, and here are three more: in vienna in 1981, the rap-and-terry-chimes version, and the times square (!) footage.
#829: the clash - this is radio clash (the tomorrow show, 1981)
who would win if mick jones’ drum synthesizer solo had a fight to the death with joe strummer’s bicepts, paul simonon’s royal crown pomade, and topper headon’s beret? topper headon’s beret.
#630: the clash - bankrobber (1980)
great moments in unexpected expressions of joy from members of the clash:
0:37 - mikey dread, producer and reggae legend, smiling with his tambourine
1:20 - joe strummer, frontman, twirls his bandana around
2:03 - mick jones, guitarist, grins punk rock’s rarest and most likeable grins
2:26 - mikey dread, at the controls, stands up and wobbles his knees to the beat
2:32 - baker and johnny green, clash roadies who co-star in the video as bank robbers, and who during filming were stopped and questioned by south london police officers, celebrate their new bags of money.
#538: shane macgowan, nick cave, bobby gillespie, glen matlock, chrissie hynde, mick jones, johnny depp, and more - i put a spell on you (2010)
the future of charity singles has been put in grave jeopardy by a group of tocacco-smoking rapscallions who have recorded such a pelvic, leathery, and tremendous screamin’ jay hawkins cover (to benefit haiti) that no one, including lionel richie, will be brave enough to gather a group of singing celebrities ever again. this is the charity single to end charity singles. someone get shane macgowan a nobel and a drink.
#512: chrissie hynde (with nick cave) - i’ll stand by you (bbc, 1999)
it’s wrong that the 80s gets all the power ballad attention. with no disrespect to every rose has its thorn, it was in the 90s that stephanie seymour walked down axl rose’s aisle for ten and a half minutes while aerosmith outdid all the gems on get a grip with an interstellar slow jam. and then there’s the pretenders’ monumentally under-appreciated i’ll stand by you: this performance includes the velvet underground’s john cale looking on and nick cave slightly messing up key changes, plus there’s a joke about oasis. and god bless chrissie hynde, who came close to starting a band with the clash’s mick jones and marrying the kinks’ ray davies, but could beat both in arm wrestling.
#42: junior murvin - police and thieves (1976)
is this the best falsetto in any reggae song ever? the most ironic use of a militjary outfit in a british television performance? better than the clash cover? either way, the girls in their picnic dresses seem to get down.
#41: the clash - police and thieves (1979)
today i made a grown woman cry. also, unrelatedly, i was threatened by a team of high-powered lawyers. then i listened to the clash cover junior murvin and everything was better again.
