Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Love is a mixtape!


Between a busy workload, snowstorms, and shaving pounds of hair off my face, Top 5 Tuesday was bumped to Top 5 (and a bonus) Wednesday.

So here you are, Scene and Heard's "Covered" In Love Mix. (you can't make a Valentines mix without putting some cheese in the title)

While Valentines Day is basically a stupid thing (do you really need an excuse to buy your lady flowers and tell her you love her if you do actually love her?), 'love' is the thing written about in songs and stories more than anything else. (Zombies comes in at at a close second). Love makes the creative world go round. But I didn't want to give you the typical love cheese of songs. So since love is a shapeless something without a definitive definition, I wanted to share my five favorite COVERS of love songs, re-interpreted to be better than the original conceptions. I love these songs and I'm going to buy them flowers tomorrow.

5. Otis Redding - Cupid
Okay, there isn't much difference between Sam Cooke and my boy Otis. But when you put this cut on, you don't even need a bottle of merlot and candlelight to get where you're it's inevitably taking you and your lover.
buy!

4. Gael Garcia Bernal - If You Rescue Me (Chanson des Chats)
From the beautiful flick, Science of Sleep, this adorable ditty is a total reinterpretation of The Velvet Underground's "After Hours." Spin this for that babe you're crushing on, and you can thank me afterwards.
buy!

3. Noel Gallagher - This Guy's In Love With You
You wouldn't expect a hard-boozing, big mouthed, alternative rock maestro of the 90's to pull off a beautiful acoustic performance of a Burt Bacharach tune. But if their's anything the Oasis songwriter is full of besides himself--it's wonderful surprises like this one.
buy!

2. Elliott Smith - Thirteen
This Big Star song is widely considered the cutest young love song of the 90s. (Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" provides tough competition.) Elliott Smith took the greatest song he never wrote and made it one of the greatest songs he covered and made even better.
buy!

1. Ryan Adams - Wonderwall
When this Oasis tune flooded the airwaves in the 90s, it made everyone want to be in love. Ryan Adams took it on his fantastic "Love Is Hell" record, broke it down to it's barest bones and brassed it into his own fragile display of longing.
buy!

BONUS: I give you the greatest love song ever written.
VAN HALEN - HOT FOR TEACHER

*if you dig these tunes, please support the artists and buy their stuff.

And while we're talking about love and mixtapes, this book is the best thing I ever read.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous AfaceInTheCrowd said...

Thanks for the tunes chris a truely inspired choice of songs.Maybe a good book for some on V day would be 'Love is a Dog from Hell' by Charles Bukowski'

February 13, 2008 4:49 PM 
Blogger Chris said...

face,
glad you dig! i'm running out and getting that book right now on sheer fact of how awesome that title is.

February 13, 2008 4:59 PM 
Blogger Dominique said...

Nice mix. I totally agree with you about V-day. I think it's so dogmatic and another way for big corporations to cash in. If you really care about someone why can't you tell them any other day of the year. I think it's much sweeter if I got a thoughtful gift on a random day versus a cheesy card and a box of godiva or a damn build-a-bear. I also realize I may be the only female in America who thinks that (ha).

Also, I got to see Van Halen this past weekend. They were ah-mazing. It was kind of akin to having the best sex of your life...well, not really, but they rocked the shit. Plus, "Hot For Teacher" live was bad-ass. The only part sucked was that Eddie guitar was little bit too hard, and I couldn't hear DLR or Wolfgang a couple of times.

I've read Love is a Mixtape. Good stuff. Although I'm not crazy about Sheffeild's writing in RS. What about you? Another good mixape book is "Songbook" by Nick Hornby.

February 15, 2008 1:07 AM 

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