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Soundtrack: All Over the Musical Map — Finding New England; Part 4/5
I just realized that I never finished posting this.
Sorry about that. :-)
As it turns out, the delay may have been a blessing, since I do have a slight addendum to this, thanks to finding a few tracks that I can tuck in at the end.
Other sections of this soundtrack can be found in:
Please comment if you download...or even if you just feel like it.
Sorry about that. :-)
As it turns out, the delay may have been a blessing, since I do have a slight addendum to this, thanks to finding a few tracks that I can tuck in at the end.
Other sections of this soundtrack can be found in:
- All Over the Musical Map: Finding New England, Part 1
- All Over the Musical Map: Finding New England, Part 2
- All Over the Musical Map: Finding New England, Part 3
- Part 5 TBA
Please comment if you download...or even if you just feel like it.
Sax and Violins — Talking Heads
from Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vasoline
[Support the Artist]
This song was first released on the original movie soundtrack for the film Until the End of the World. It appeared on their "best of" double-CD collection Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vasoline the following year. It has since been added to several Talking Heads compilation albums and the remastered Naked, the band's last studio CD before they broke up. An interesting note about this song: it was written to sound like a reunion song. Or, as Byrne put it, he wanted to write a song that the Talking Heads would sing 10 or 20 years from now, and decided that the "reunited Heads" would sound like the "pre-break-up" Heads. Ooooooookay then.
For more on the Talking Heads, see above.
When We Were Kings — The Harvard Opportunes
from True Story
[Support the Artist]
This co-ed a cappella ensemble from Harvard University in Cambridge has existed since 1980. Since membership is drawn from the student body, the line-up of singers obviously changes as members graduate or leave. This particular track is a cover of the song When We Were Kings by Brian McKnight and Diana King from the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings about the 1974 Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman heavyweight championship fight in Zaire called Rumble in the Jungle.
I Miss You Best — The Willard Grant Conspiracy
from Mojave
[Support the Artist]
For more on the Willard Grant Conspiracy, see above.
The Water Is Wide — Vox One
from Vox One
[Support the Artist]
This hearing this soaring gospel song live and in person in a small bar in Wilton, New Hampshire is what completely won me over when it came to Vox One. I got to hear it again live and in person last year and it still gave me the same chill of joy up and down the spine. Nothing lifts you higher in mood than this song. I mean, nothing can quite top it. It remains my favorite Vox One performance, whether it is live or on CD.
For more on Vox One, see above.
Massachusetts — Bee Gees
from Their Greatest Hits
[Support the Artist]
Look, I seriously cannot have a soundtrack about New England without including this song. Seriously. What makes the inclusion of this song really funny (aside from the fact that the Brothers Gibb are Australian), is that when they wrote this song not one of these guys had ever seen Massachusetts. They just liked the cadance of the name so they wrote a song around it. Okay then! At any rate, snippets of this song are used for just about every single identification bumper for radio stations in Massachusetts. If you ever come to visit, learn to like this song and fast.
Weekend in New England — Barry Manilow
from Ultimate Manilow
[Support the Artist]
Yes, I know Manilow is from Brooklyn. However, I love this song. Love it. It's completely cheesy, overly sentimental, utterly over-the-top...all while providing the perfect description of a romantic get-a-way winter weekend on Cape Cod. What? Don't look at me like that. No, really. Just stop it. I have nothing to feel guilty about for adoring this song with a love that knows no bounds.
Flying Low — The Willard Grant Conspiracy
from Let It Ride
[Support the Artist]
For more on the Willard Grant Conspiracy, see above.
People Change — Rockapella
from Rockapella 2
[Support the Artist]
For more on the Rockapella, see above.
The Christians and the Pagans (Live) — Dar Williams
from Out There Live
[Support the Artist]
Now this is how you have a holiday. One of may favorite, all-time Christmas songs. You might say that it's almost typical for a New England Christmas, complete with the Christian relatives, Wiccan relatives, Jewish relatives, atheist relatives, agnostic relatives, MBA relatives, hippy relatives, rich relatives, poor relatives, gay relatives, straight relatives, and all just about every other category you can think gathered around one single family table passing each other the potatoes without throwing crap at each other.
Peace on earth, indeed! And God(dess) bless us, everyone.
For more on Dar Williams, see above.
Magic — The Cars
from Complete Greatest Hits
[Support the Artist]
The Cars (pronounced "Tha Caahs" by locals) was one of the first New Wave bands in the 1970s and probably one of the few from that era could've given a flying fig about "art." The band was about music, and they really didn't care to expand beyond that. If you're old enough to remember the beginning of the MTV era (back when MTV actually showed music videos) , I don't have to explain The Cars to you. Kick back for a little nostalgia people, and raise a glass to the band's late bassist and drummer Benjamin Orr. I still remember the day in 2000 when the news came over the radio that he had died from pancreatic cancer in Atlanta. It was a semi-official day of mourning on the Boston radio stations.
Dream On — Aerosmith
from Greatest Hits 1973-1988
[Support the Artist]
Ahhhh, the Bad Boys of Boston. I don't really have to say anything about our hometown pride and joy, do I? God Lord, I hope not. Anyway, to my shame, this is the only Aerosmith track I have. Everything else of theirs that I owned was on cassette tape, all of which was lost in the Tragic Accident Which I Still Can't Talk About. May the New England music gods have mercy on my soul for my terrible, terrible lapse.
Pure Imagination — Vox One
from Pure Imagination
[Support the Artist]
For more on Vox One, see above.
The Captains of Orange Street — David Huntsinger
from New England Sunrise: Natural Encounters
[Support the Artist]
I can't seem to find out anything about this guy, other than the fact that he normally makes Christian/New Age-type music. *scratches head* Well, there's no hint of that here on this CD (which is admittedly very, very old). This track is an interesting cinematic-style tune that sounds like it should be over the closing credits of a movie.
Downeaster Alexa — Billy Joel
from Storm Front
[Support the Artist]
I know, Billy Joel is from Long Island, which is most definitely not a part of New England. However, the 'Downeaster Alexa' makes mention of several New England coastal landmarks and the plight of the fisherman-narrator in the song echoes very strongly in fishing towns like Gloucester and Rockport.
By the by, "downeaster" has several meanings, none of which are dirty. A downeaster is a type of boat, the Amtrack run between Portland, Maine and Boston, and a nickname for people from Maine.
Metal Drums — Patty Larkin
from Tango
[Support the Artist]
This haunting song tells the very true story about the environmental disaster in Holbrook, Massachusetts. For anyone who's read the book A Civil Action or seen the 1998 movie by the same name about the poisoning of the ground water supply in Woburn, Massachusetts thanks to illegal dumping by a large employer of factory work, this is exactly the same deal. This story has been repeated in countless towns across New England through the 1980s and the 1990s as the region's manufacturing base fled to the southern U.S. where non-unionized work was cheap and plentiful, leaving a century's worth of dumped toxic chemicals in the ground and the groundwater for the now-unemployed factory workers to pay for it. Let's just say that there are more than a few towns that feel that chill wind blow whenever the words "cancer" and "cluster" are placed too close together.
'Metal Drums' has a haunting melody, a marching drumbeat, and the feel of a ghost story as Larkin relates the very real-life losses suffered by Holbrook thanks to the ghost of their manufacturing base.
For more on the Patty Larkin, see above.
To download Tracks 46 through 50, go to the SaveFile Project Page All Over the Musical Map: Finding New England, Part 4.
Other sections of this soundtrack can be found in:
from Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vasoline
[Support the Artist]
This song was first released on the original movie soundtrack for the film Until the End of the World. It appeared on their "best of" double-CD collection Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vasoline the following year. It has since been added to several Talking Heads compilation albums and the remastered Naked, the band's last studio CD before they broke up. An interesting note about this song: it was written to sound like a reunion song. Or, as Byrne put it, he wanted to write a song that the Talking Heads would sing 10 or 20 years from now, and decided that the "reunited Heads" would sound like the "pre-break-up" Heads. Ooooooookay then.
For more on the Talking Heads, see above.
When We Were Kings — The Harvard Opportunes
from True Story
[Support the Artist]
This co-ed a cappella ensemble from Harvard University in Cambridge has existed since 1980. Since membership is drawn from the student body, the line-up of singers obviously changes as members graduate or leave. This particular track is a cover of the song When We Were Kings by Brian McKnight and Diana King from the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings about the 1974 Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman heavyweight championship fight in Zaire called Rumble in the Jungle.
I Miss You Best — The Willard Grant Conspiracy
from Mojave
[Support the Artist]
For more on the Willard Grant Conspiracy, see above.
The Water Is Wide — Vox One
from Vox One
[Support the Artist]
This hearing this soaring gospel song live and in person in a small bar in Wilton, New Hampshire is what completely won me over when it came to Vox One. I got to hear it again live and in person last year and it still gave me the same chill of joy up and down the spine. Nothing lifts you higher in mood than this song. I mean, nothing can quite top it. It remains my favorite Vox One performance, whether it is live or on CD.
For more on Vox One, see above.
Massachusetts — Bee Gees
from Their Greatest Hits
[Support the Artist]
Look, I seriously cannot have a soundtrack about New England without including this song. Seriously. What makes the inclusion of this song really funny (aside from the fact that the Brothers Gibb are Australian), is that when they wrote this song not one of these guys had ever seen Massachusetts. They just liked the cadance of the name so they wrote a song around it. Okay then! At any rate, snippets of this song are used for just about every single identification bumper for radio stations in Massachusetts. If you ever come to visit, learn to like this song and fast.
Weekend in New England — Barry Manilow
from Ultimate Manilow
[Support the Artist]
Yes, I know Manilow is from Brooklyn. However, I love this song. Love it. It's completely cheesy, overly sentimental, utterly over-the-top...all while providing the perfect description of a romantic get-a-way winter weekend on Cape Cod. What? Don't look at me like that. No, really. Just stop it. I have nothing to feel guilty about for adoring this song with a love that knows no bounds.
Flying Low — The Willard Grant Conspiracy
from Let It Ride
[Support the Artist]
For more on the Willard Grant Conspiracy, see above.
People Change — Rockapella
from Rockapella 2
[Support the Artist]
For more on the Rockapella, see above.
The Christians and the Pagans (Live) — Dar Williams
from Out There Live
[Support the Artist]
Now this is how you have a holiday. One of may favorite, all-time Christmas songs. You might say that it's almost typical for a New England Christmas, complete with the Christian relatives, Wiccan relatives, Jewish relatives, atheist relatives, agnostic relatives, MBA relatives, hippy relatives, rich relatives, poor relatives, gay relatives, straight relatives, and all just about every other category you can think gathered around one single family table passing each other the potatoes without throwing crap at each other.
Peace on earth, indeed! And God(dess) bless us, everyone.
For more on Dar Williams, see above.
Magic — The Cars
from Complete Greatest Hits
[Support the Artist]
The Cars (pronounced "Tha Caahs" by locals) was one of the first New Wave bands in the 1970s and probably one of the few from that era could've given a flying fig about "art." The band was about music, and they really didn't care to expand beyond that. If you're old enough to remember the beginning of the MTV era (back when MTV actually showed music videos) , I don't have to explain The Cars to you. Kick back for a little nostalgia people, and raise a glass to the band's late bassist and drummer Benjamin Orr. I still remember the day in 2000 when the news came over the radio that he had died from pancreatic cancer in Atlanta. It was a semi-official day of mourning on the Boston radio stations.
Dream On — Aerosmith
from Greatest Hits 1973-1988
[Support the Artist]
Ahhhh, the Bad Boys of Boston. I don't really have to say anything about our hometown pride and joy, do I? God Lord, I hope not. Anyway, to my shame, this is the only Aerosmith track I have. Everything else of theirs that I owned was on cassette tape, all of which was lost in the Tragic Accident Which I Still Can't Talk About. May the New England music gods have mercy on my soul for my terrible, terrible lapse.
Pure Imagination — Vox One
from Pure Imagination
[Support the Artist]
For more on Vox One, see above.
The Captains of Orange Street — David Huntsinger
from New England Sunrise: Natural Encounters
[Support the Artist]
I can't seem to find out anything about this guy, other than the fact that he normally makes Christian/New Age-type music. *scratches head* Well, there's no hint of that here on this CD (which is admittedly very, very old). This track is an interesting cinematic-style tune that sounds like it should be over the closing credits of a movie.
Downeaster Alexa — Billy Joel
from Storm Front
[Support the Artist]
I know, Billy Joel is from Long Island, which is most definitely not a part of New England. However, the 'Downeaster Alexa' makes mention of several New England coastal landmarks and the plight of the fisherman-narrator in the song echoes very strongly in fishing towns like Gloucester and Rockport.
By the by, "downeaster" has several meanings, none of which are dirty. A downeaster is a type of boat, the Amtrack run between Portland, Maine and Boston, and a nickname for people from Maine.
Metal Drums — Patty Larkin
from Tango
[Support the Artist]
This haunting song tells the very true story about the environmental disaster in Holbrook, Massachusetts. For anyone who's read the book A Civil Action or seen the 1998 movie by the same name about the poisoning of the ground water supply in Woburn, Massachusetts thanks to illegal dumping by a large employer of factory work, this is exactly the same deal. This story has been repeated in countless towns across New England through the 1980s and the 1990s as the region's manufacturing base fled to the southern U.S. where non-unionized work was cheap and plentiful, leaving a century's worth of dumped toxic chemicals in the ground and the groundwater for the now-unemployed factory workers to pay for it. Let's just say that there are more than a few towns that feel that chill wind blow whenever the words "cancer" and "cluster" are placed too close together.
'Metal Drums' has a haunting melody, a marching drumbeat, and the feel of a ghost story as Larkin relates the very real-life losses suffered by Holbrook thanks to the ghost of their manufacturing base.
For more on the Patty Larkin, see above.
To download Tracks 46 through 50, go to the SaveFile Project Page All Over the Musical Map: Finding New England, Part 4.
Other sections of this soundtrack can be found in:
no subject
no subject
I can't believe I totally spaced on making the entry public. *headdesk*
no subject
Long Island
You are partly right. People don't realize it but Long Island is actually divided between New York and New England. The Eastern end of Long Island has always been about fishing. Billy Joel's song is about the New England part being absorbed by NYC suburbia.
no subject
Willard Grant Conspiracy - love love. Cuckoo is a new favourite.
Mighty Mighty Boss Tones - Ska! Never enough of it.
Morphin. Staind & Letters to Cleo. Must go digging and get more!
Metal Drums - Patty Larkin. Wonderful.
Special mention to the a cappella sprinkled throughout.
Many thanks.