My Life is a Stereo archive entries:
- Lavender Blue
- On Every Street
- Just One Day
- Song A Day Streaming Entertainment
- Love The Way You Lie -- Not for kids
- Sister Golden Hair
- Lee DeWyze - Another Rendition of Hallelujah
- The Versions of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah
- Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
- Rattle and Hum: From Desire to Jealousy
- You're In My Heart (and Down My Pants)
- Losing My Religion
- I Still Haven't Found.... A Better Concert
- I Hurt Myself Today
- Life Is A Highway
- We Said Hello Goodbye
- Nothing Changes on New Year's Day
- The Happiest Girl
- How Loud Does It Go?
- The Song Remembers When
November 22, 2011
Lavender Blue
In the fall of 1985, I was listening to a cassette tape of Misplaced Childhood by Marillion. I'm pretty sure I stretched the tape by playing it so much.
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Posted by Hammer at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2011
On Every Street
I'm usually living in the present (or these days, the future), so it isn't often that I'll reminisce about a past relationship. Sometimes a song will remind me of a specific time or event...
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Posted by Hammer at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2011
Just One Day
I stumbled upon this song "Just One Day" by RJ Chevalier and really liked it. However, it didn't include the lyrics. Here's my attempt at transcribing them...
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Posted by Hammer at 12:36 AM | Comments (1)
June 14, 2011
Song A Day Streaming Entertainment
I first heard about Jonathan Mann some time in the summer of 2009, around the time that his video for Bing Goes The Internet was spreading from geek to geek.
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Posted by Hammer at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2010
Love The Way You Lie -- Not for kids
I know I'm getting older, and perhaps even growing more conservative over time, but I'm just not too impressed with the Eminem / Rhianna song Love The Way You Lie getting a sickening amount of mainstream air time.
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Posted by Hammer at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2010
Sister Golden Hair
From spring 1991 until summer 1992, I worked a night job as a Karaoke Host in a small neighbourhood pub in Westbank, BC, called Tappers. I didn't realise how much I loved singing, and how much I actually didn't suck at singing, until taking that job. There is one incident that still makes me smile when I look back at it...
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Posted by Hammer at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2010
Lee DeWyze - Another Rendition of Hallelujah
It was no surprise to me that yet another version of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah found its way into American Idol 2010, courtesy of performer Lee DeWyze. What did surprise me was the verses that were chosen for the arrangement.
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Posted by Hammer at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2010
The Versions of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah
Now that I've started down the path of research and discovery, it's hard to stop. After posting previously about Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah, I kept on looking for more versions of this song. This eventually led to the question that people are asking:where are the missing verses? Are there really fifteen (15) different verses for Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah?
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Posted by Hammer at 12:48 PM | Comments (1)
March 15, 2010
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Some times I'm blown away and feel like I've been living under a rock when I listen to a different version of a song that I've heard before, and it's so blindingly clear: this is how the song is crying out to be performed. I've heard Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah before, but I'm sad to admit that I was blind to the version performed by the late Jeff Buckley until three days ago.
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Posted by Hammer at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2010
Rattle and Hum: From Desire to Jealousy
There have been many times in my life when I was unaware of just how profound or important an event was going to be for me. It's a lot easier to look back on where you've been - hindsight is 20/20 they say. However, for a very few occasions, I've been acutely aware of the impact right in the heat of the moment. One of those moments was in February, 1989 - the day that I realised jealousy was a reflection of insecurity; they day that I accepted I was going to lose my girlfriend.
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Posted by Hammer at 03:36 PM | Comments (1)
November 04, 2009
You're In My Heart (and Down My Pants)
By the summer of 1992, I had been a mobile Disc Jockey for five years, and had already played music for more weddings than most people will ever go to in their lifetime. This particular night, I was on the road, playing music for a small town wedding...
Continue reading "You're In My Heart (and Down My Pants)"
Posted by Hammer at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2007
Losing My Religion
It was in the fall of 1991, and I was working a Friday night as the DJ in a neighbourhood pub. Tapper's Pub in Westbank, BC, was like no other bar or pub that I had been in previously, let alone worked in...
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Posted by Hammer at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2007
I Still Haven't Found.... A Better Concert
It's been just over ten years since I saw U2 play in Edmonton on their Popmart tour. What a phenomenal concert! Since then I've been comparing all other concert experiences to that one...
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Posted by Hammer at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2007
I Hurt Myself Today
Most music videos are interesting or entertaining, some are silly and others are useless. But only one of them, for me, is truly moving...
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Posted by Hammer at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2007
Life Is A Highway
Back when I lived in Kelowna, BC, I owned a van that was white with a bright orange stripe painted down the side - yes, it used to be an ambulance. How ironic that it would almost be the death of me...
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Posted by Hammer at 03:15 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2006
We Said Hello Goodbye
Friday night, and I'm going through a large stack of CD's, deciding which ones to sell in a garage sale tomorrow, when I stumble upon No Jacket Required from Phil Collins. While I'm deciding to keep it or sell it, I pause to open the case. As soon as I see the distinctively ugly green and purple disc, I remember that this is the very first CD I ever purchased!
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Posted by Hammer at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2006
Nothing Changes on New Year's Day
Since the first time that I heard the song "New Year's Day" by U2 back in 1988, I've been haunted with the thought that there is some deeper meaning to this song that I'm just not getting.
So today, New Year's Day 2006, I did something about it. Oh nothing astounding - I just searched and found explanations from people who know more about history than me...
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Posted by Hammer at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
The Happiest Girl
I endured musical torture at a very young age. No, really. The first song to which I can attach a specific memory is "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA". See? Torture. Why couldn't it be one of the other (better) songs that were relased in 1972, like "Layla" or "American Pie" that get this personal prestige?
It was the summer of 1976...
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Posted by Hammer at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2005
How Loud Does It Go?
The song "Stereo" by The Watchmen is another one of those songs that I liked from the first time that I heard it. The way that the song starts with a slow crescendo of a backgrond synth and a single picked guiter, which is then overlaid by the lead singer completing the first two verses before the bass and drums join in, reminded me of the sound production on U2's Joshua Tree album. And I've always loved that whole album.
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Posted by Hammer at 12:03 AM | Comments (3)
September 25, 2005
The Song Remembers When
During the summer of 1994 I was already full force into promoting and operating my mobile DJ business. However, every once in a while I still ran into my previous manager, John - a person who was instrumental in getting me out to hundreds of dances for seven years previous. Although we were now competitors in business, we still chatted as friends when we saw each other (it took a few years, but this friendship eventually did die).
On this occasion, I was over at John's house picking up some equipment that he needed to have repaired. In the middle of hauling speakers and amplifiers out of his basement and into my van, he stopped and asked if I knew a Tricia Yearwood tune "The Song Remembers When"...?
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Posted by Hammer at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)