British alternative rockers Muse (comprising of composer/guitarist/pianist/vocalist Matthew Bellamy, drummer/percussionist Dominic Howard, and bassist Chris Wolstenholme) were on the French television program Taratata about a week ago. Their performance included a cover they have been doing a lot lately called Popcorn.
Popcorn is a synth-pop song by Gershon Kingsley (from 1969!) and probably one you're aware of, since in 2005 Crazy Frog (yes, that annoying amphibian you love to hate) released his own version. However, this song first became popular in 1972 when an instrumental cover band called Hot Butter recorded their own version.
Now this is where things get a little twisted.
Hot Butter did a cover of a song by sixties British instrumental group, The Tornados, called Telstar. Telstar was the first song by a British group to make it number one in the US (and by my powers of reasoning and logic I would have thought The Beatles carried that title). Anyway, the rhythm guitarist of The Tornados included one George Bellamy. And yes, if you have read this carefully so far, he is Matt Bellamy’s father.
George Bellamy second from the right.
Matt Bellamy in the middle.
Check out the resemblance!
But we’re not done yet, there’s more.
If you listen to Telstar, and then Knights of Cydonia, you can hear that in some places the songs sound similar. Matt said he was listening to his father’s band during the making of the album Black Holes & Revelations which ‘Knights’ features on. So, (again by the powers of reasoning and logic) one can assume that Telstar influenced the making of Knights of Cydonia. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, because The Tornados rocketed to number one in the States with Telstar, and Muse got themselves an extremely successful song with Knights of Cydonia. What’s wrong with that?
Ah... Don't you love it when everything comes round in full circle?
Popcorn, anyone?
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Here are the different versions of Popcorn for comparison purposes. Which one do you prefer?
Some people keep diaries, make scrapbooks, have that special memory box they store away high on the top shelf of their wardrobe, away from prying eyes and grubby fingers that want to find, and potentially, ruin them. These apparent hobbies are all used to keep memories - sacred memories that is - in some kind of tangible, practical form to pull out years later in the hope to re-live those precious moments all over again.
I have tried these methods before, my diary from grade 7 is somewhere in my box of memories and all the crafty things I had for my scrapbook eventually found their way into that box for storage purposes. As you can see, I’ve found it a hard exercise to keep up with any of these. They almost seem restrictive since a diary would require me to keep a book to write my daily events, thoughts and emotions, a scrapbook would require me to take an ample amount of photos and arty type products to produce and maintain it, and finally, having a shoebox for a memory box is sometimes not big enough. Trust me, I’m quite artistic, enjoy writing and like to think I’m the creative type. So why are these methods not working for me?
I can only think of one answer, really.
It’s because I can’t be arsed keeping them, so why use them? Too much time and effort. Well, what feels like time and effort to me at least. But putting that aside, there’s something about those things that don’t connect with me personally. So, my alternative is to write ABOUT music.
Whoa?
Music connects to me on a personal level.
Now I’m going to sound a bit cheesy when I say that I believe life is like an album, that each person has a ‘soundtrack’ of their own. It has those crescendos for the highs, the steady bassline when it flat lines, and is paced out by the beat which you decide to dance it along to. Not only that, but as different song genres categorise different type of music, these genres could categorise different types of people. BUT (yes, we have a big ‘but’ here) they in themselves aren’t robust. They’re flexible. There are songs where classical fuses with rock (e.g. Muse), where rock fuses with hip-hop (e.g. Rage Against The Machine), and songs where a hip-hop artist such as Jay-Z does a parody of Wonderwall to get back at criticism from Noel Gallagher at the Glastonbury Festival (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDIOVXx-y8 – which I must add is a great live performance). No one diary entry or elaborate montage of photographs or box can capture the essence of who I am, but a selection of songs can get close.
But how does this relate to the whole ‘keeping of sarced memories’ part?
There are particular songs that remind me of particular events in my life in great detail. Observe the following:
Coco Jumbo by Mr. President
I remember this song as a kid, maybe when I was about seven years old. The specific memory it triggers is the days I used to go to work with my dad on my school summer holidays. We listened to the radio as we worked and this song came up often. There was this one place in West End where we got fish and chips every time where dad would threaten to take two bucks out of my measly five dollar pay in jest. I would wait for the food while he delivered milk to the Greek restaurant next door (which still exists today. It’s called ‘Lefkas’) and then we would go and eat the food in his big white Isuzu truck. Now, that is quite a lot of information I was able to recall from just one song. ‘Ya ya yeah!’
Clocks by Coldplay
Quite possibly one of my favourite songs by the band. Clocks reminds me of when I was at that crucial age of 13 and when my family moved into the house I currently live in. I used to live in a street with kids my age and grew up with them for most of my childhood. Moving into a suburb that was the complete opposite to that was a hard adjustment. Clocks reminds me of my old house and my childhood. ‘And nothing else compares’
15 Step by Radiohead
The only reason I remember the date of my formal is because of this song. In Rainbows was released on 10th of October, my formal was three days later on the 13th. Memories of my formal are linked with this quirky little song. ‘Etcetera, etcetera.’
And there we have it. My roundabout, lame excuse for having a blog. I wanna remember songs I like and have a record of it. Or… let’s just say I love music. I like that excuse. ;)
