Barry recently posted about the publication of the book about [W:Tom Waits] that he and Sharleena – these are not their real names 😉 had illustrated. This inspired me to see what Spotify had to offer in the Tom Waits section. Quite a lot apparently. There was a suitably eclectic selection featured in the Tom Waits’ Jukebox including a track from the [W:Lord Buckley] album A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat which Frank Zappa released on his [W:Straight Records] label. Thanks to the wonder of the Interweb we can enjoy Lord Buckley and [W:Groucho Marx] sparring together. Splendid.
Spotify
Words of the day
I have the [W:OED] Word Of The Day pop up in my RSS thingy. Yesterday’s word was, predictably, [W:Shrovetide] – c1425 Orolog. Sapient. vii. in Anglia X. 386/39 {Th}e sondaye In Quinquagesime, with {th}e tweyne dayes folowynge, {th}at is clepyd Schroftyde.
Todays, by contrast, is [W:Drum and bass] which dates back as far as – 1990 [W:The Face (magazine)] Nov. 53/2 ‘Dub Be Good To Me’..is Beats International‘s most characteristic creation. It’s drum and bass culture, the sound of downtempo Britain after midnight. 1997 S. BARROW & P. DALTON Reggae v. 204/1 But the first vocal record with a full dub version on its flip..is usually recognised as the [W:Little Roy] ‘Hard Fighter’ track on the [W:Lloyd Daley] Syndicate label, recorded in March 1971, with the splendid ‘Voo-doo’ as its strictly drum and bass counterpart from [W:The Hippy Boys].
The OED Rocks! But, alas, no Little Roy or Hippy Boys on Spotify yet. 🙁
The best word of the day has to be ricockulous, which describes something a degree or two worse than ridiculous but not quite as bad as ripenisulous. It was used by [W:Ben Goldacre] writing about the Facebook causes cancer nonsense on his Bad Science blog. Splendid.
Spinning around in the Spotify catalogue
Whilst enjoying the wonderfulness that is Spotify one can come across the occasional cataloguing anomaly. Clicking on an artist’s name offers a brief biography and a list of Similar Artists. Normally this is a great way to explore but….
Clicking the minimalist composer [W:Steve Reich] gives you the New Orleans jazz band leader [W:George Lewis (clarinetist)] as a Similar Artist. Perhaps I am missing something but I do not really see the connection. That George Lewis should not be confused with this [W:George Lewis (trombonist)] who can be found on the Nine To Get Ready album but clicking his name linked with the album takes you back to the other George Lewis :-\
The Leaves were a 1960’s band who recorded “Hey Joe”
which [W:Frank Zappa] parodied in Flower Punk and [W:Jimi Hendrix] later reworked.
Spotify has the right biography….
But the wrong [W:Leaves (Icelandic band)] music. Or vice versa.
:-\
The Spotify blog keeps you well informed and a recent listing of new additions (yes I am the kind of person who scrolls through them all 😉 ) included the [W:Sun Ra] Second Star To The Right album (a favourite of mine). Searching Sun Ra fails to find it. But searching for the album’s title does find it. Apparently it is by Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra which is obviously why searching for Sun Ra fails to find it :-\