Halloween- HalloWoman Edition

Halloween- yes! The best international holiday ever, easy.
(except for maybe Thanksgiving, which I just learned Canadians also celebrate)
(and except my birthday)

So to help you celebrate- because I'm a giver, see?- I will put up a slew of unholy holiday-related songs.
Now, this song musically is not so dark or spooky-ooky. But, it is by the great (late- that's sorta Halloween-ish) Marty Robbins.

(download Devil Woman- Marty Robbins as you watch below)

Now, you kids these days, with your John E. Cash, or what have you... Sure, he's who all those kids- who are demanding candy already- would post for their Halloween songs. Sure, sure, "Ring of Fire"- but you already know about that song. Lord, you probably already have that song! So I give you this instead.

Or rather, these instead:


(maybe you can snag that one too.

And this one, you just gotta hear.



Listen to it- it's nuts! It has killing, stampedes, lightning, Mexico, lightning which performs a miracle, and the face of Jesus Christ- the OG Zombie- Respek!

Un-Covered Melody

So I did pull off the masterstroke, the (bloodless) coup that I promised last post. And it's pretty grand. Pretty epic, like the better-known version of this song:



-- Please download this fresh-from-vinyl version, of Belafonte's version of "Unchained Melody" --
( I also have, all ripped from vinyl, Charlie Rich, Al Green, Ricky Nelson, and Sonny & Cher covers. I can post those, of you'd please. )

Of course, the better-/best-known version of this song is by the very righteous Righteous Brothers. And I post Harry Belafonte's version, not because their version lacks anything-
No, quite the contrary-
but just to show what changes Belafonte has wrought.

Margeaux and I were talking at her house (that's the coup, FYI), and she posited her general rule about covers:
Don't cover a song that you cannot improve.
I like this rule; it makes sense. If you just want to play the damn song, sure: play it. But to record it and send it out there, why?, unless you have done it one better.

Now, we could, with all good reason, say that nobody can improve on the Righteous Brothers' version.
However, in Belafonte's slowed-down version, there is a delicacy that is not present in the Righteous Brothers' version.

Oh And Also, I failed to mention this little historical tidbit:
Belafonte covered this song in 1956, on the album pictured above.

The Righteous Brothers covered it on this album, in 1965:


So Belafonte did not violate Margeaux's good rule about covers.

The original? It's from a movie about prison!, which is where the 'Unchained'-name comes from.
Oh, and somehow, Belafonte was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Song for this, even though he did not write it, and it had already been covered a few times by then.

Anyhow, his is not the original, but it is less a cover or less un- an original (if that makes sense), than the Righteous Brothers version.

Epictetian Preachin'

Here we go, here's a little uplift, to match our weather today:



Oooooh, if only "everyday" felt this good!
Going to go eat goose with friends tonight (my idea),
doing research on Stoic philosophy in combination with Foucault's use of their ethical care of the self,
sat in a park where they were mulching Xmas trees, which smelled better than you could possibly imagine.

Well, I won't bore you with all the rest of my "day, people"-- for it is not your duty to mark down and be concerned with my joys and ills, nor mine to fret and tut-tut over yours. As Epictetus tells us:

But the judge condemns you on the charge of impiety. And did not the judges similarly condemn Socrates? Surely it is no concern of yours...
Your father has a certain function, and if he does not perform it, he has destroyed the father in him, the man who loves his offspring, the man of gentleness within him. Do not seek to make him lose anything else on this account...
Again, it is your function to defend yourself firmly, respectfully, without passion. Otherwise, you have destroyed within you the son, the respectful man, the man of honour. What then? Is the judge secure? No; but he too runs just as great a risk. Why, then, are you afraid of what decision he is going to render? What have you to do with another man's evil? (Discourses, Book III, xviii)

So, if I be condemned, I will not let that affect the respect which I hold for myself, nor will it affect my judgment on what a nice fucking day it is.

Amanda Knox: JailBait, or JailBreak??

(jail)BREAKING NEWS
Amanda Knox's prior conviction just overturned!
(--> USA wins again! <--)


Live Motörhead: "Jailbait"
You can download the studio version here

Here are the headlines that I've come up with so far:
"Foxy Knoxy Bounced From Box"
"Foxy Knox Walks Free From Cell Blocks"

Note that at about 4:15 in above video, Motörhead also plays their song "America." It's about how you can't get good meth in Canada; you have to bring it up from the USA for any proper Canadian tour.
As I said: AMERICA wins again!

OR, you can celebrate her freedom with the Irish rather than the British.


Live Thin Lizzy- "Jailbreak"
And you can download (a non-live version of) the above track here

This song title is a bit more accurate as a descriptor of Knox, yeah?, since jailbait causes, rather than suffers, jailtime. Of course, her boyfriend also went to jail... well, he's her ex-boyfriend now... and he's been freed too.

So I'm not sure if she can qualify for "jailbait" status-
What do you think?