Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So, what are you listening to?

"Grand Hotel"
Regina Spektor

Somewhere below the grand hotel
There is a tunnel that leads down to hell
Take the dumbwaiter, the laundry chute
Then sneak through the hall past the boys shining boots
Then left at the courtyard through the old garden
Where all the bellhops smoke with the guards
And then you run to the old lake house
Down to the old lake house
Run to the old lake house where it begins

Under the floorboards there's a deep well
That leads to a spring that sprung up in hell
That's where old devils danced and kissed
And made their blood pacts in the ancient myths
And running through forest they screamed in chorus
While piercing fair maiden's chests with their horns
And then they lay in the grass 'til the dawn came
Sleeping away 'til the dawn came
Lay in the grass where now stands the grand hotel

The Maître D' and a fancy chef
Silver's real, the liquor's top shelf
Play some tennis, swim in a pool
Stroll the garden shady and cool
You won't care that the devils
Won't mind that the devils
Won't know that the devils are near

Somewhere below the grand hotel
There is a tunnel that leads straight to hell
But no one comes up for the souls anymore
They come for some comfort and for the dance floor
And hiding sharp horns under fedoras
Do not disturb signs instead of a chorus
They toss and turn 'til the dawn comes
On soft sheets 'til the dawn comes
No one sleeps at the grand hotel

Room service, mini-bar
Scented soaps, chauffeured cars
Stay a day, stay a week
Here's the tunnel, take a peek
Just call up your friends at the front desk
Any hour at the front desk
Call up your friends at the grand hotel
You'll always have friends at the grand hotel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJa6lTvstKA

I have been haunted recently by an alternate reality in which Judy Garland did not die at the age of forty-seven.

But rather, in 1998, at the age of seventy-five, starred opposite her longtime friend, Mickey Rooney, in the Broadway adaptation of The Wizard of Oz at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York.

As the Wicked Witch of the West.

(Rooney appeared as the wizard.)

http://www.playbill.com/article/mickey-rooney-eartha-kitt-oz-opens-in-ny-may-6-com-75157

My granddaughter cannot understand why this is on my playlist of “Sad Songs”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDXL_5JsiC0

Ella Fitzgerald, singing the Irving Berlin Song Book. I think I own all of the old Verve Ella Songbooks now except Gershwin. But I'm not sure.

The jacket was in really good shape for its age, until I got it home and dinged it. Me & my butterfingers.

The records are cherry, though.

Soundgarden, YouTubing Temple of the Dog... Totally blindsided by Chris Cornell's apparent suicide. I'm out for tonight.

This. It's been all I've done since 3:00am this morning when I heard the news.

Yeah, it's been a pretty rotten 24 hours digesting this news.

My wife and I are huge "Seattle Music" (better term than grudge) fans, and this was awful to hear. We both loved Soundgarden and I followed Cornell around these last years as his voice is just one of the best ever. (In fact, it was Pov who first clued me in to what Audioslave actually was).

Pearl Jam is my wife's favorite band so Temple of the Dog was always sacrosanct to her. We've been playing it non-stop since the news came in.

RIP

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/2l3NFJgo6aA[/video]

Back from the Dead Tonight by ....someone, I don't know who. Just heard it and liked it.

Another Seventies jewel from Brazil, by Catia de Franca. As with the great Marlui Miranda, I couldn't hope to afford it in a million years. All praise for the fans who upload this stuff for everyone's enjoyment.

Well, the video is sure cliched and cheesy. The song's all right, though. I'm pretty sure I'll have forgotten it completely by tomorrow.

Cleome, the 2 things that really bother me about that recent Lorde song are:

- The way she caterwauls tunelessly and with seemingly no point other than to give the song a facade of "edginess" (hence the Alanis comparison)

- The way she appropriates elements of soul and gospel with the same cynical insincerity as, say, the very worse of 80s mainstream rock songs, i.e. "I Want to Know What Love Is" or "Roll With It."

I wouldn't call it tuneless, just kind of generic. There are styles in voices on the pop music charts, just like there are styles in hair, clothing, production, and so on. If my eyes were closed listening, I'd have a hard time distinguishing her from 10-12 other successful female pop stars of the hour.

Agreed about the appropriation thing. Of course, that's as old as the history of pop music, and most of us would have much smaller playlists if we eschewed everything with that same problem.

Man, none of Lorde's songs will ever measure up to this, her best ever.....

Eh. Not really my thing, but this is:



Watch guitarist Moreno almost run away with the show halfway through.

It's with real embarrassment that I note my last SBJ purchase is ten years old. Excuse me. I need to rectify this because who needs grocery money, anyway?

Lardy, Cleome, to each their own. This is who I consider the most promising artist of this decade to date, a Welsh lass of mixed Greek/Welsh descent with three albums under her belt (and, FTR, Album 1 is very good retro-80s pop, Album 2 is a bit overambitious but I give her an "A" for effort, and Album 3 is a huge leap forward into the realms of Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush in their respective primes!)

The above wasn't actually a Lorde song but a faux-Lorde song that appeared on an episode of South Park! (Hence, the above) See, there was this story arc where Randy Marsh (Stan's dad) was secretly Lorde. So they created this "Lorde" song for him to perform. Though the vocals weren't actually done by Lorde, they got an actual pop star, Sia, to perform it. I find it surprisingly catchy!

Lardy, ROTFLMFAO

A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that South Park (which I have to admit I haven't watched for 10-15 years) has been back on top form in recent seasons. There's the proof, as well as the perfect incentive for me to finally start catching up. Thank you.

She has a nice voice, but the arrangements don't really do it for me.

Right now, I'm taking stock of several CDs I just loaded onto the computer and archived. Including Calexico's excellent live Scraping. I already regret adding it to the trade/donate box, but I've gotta'. There's no damn room around here. (So what else is new?)

Loved the "Tubular Bells" from "The Exorcist" lead in to this song.